Lost Rose
by Maxawsome
Summary: Ruby goes missing and when a lead pops up Juane ends up being thrust into the Frontier where his search continues.
1. Chapter 1

**CH1:** **GONE BUT NOT DEAD**

* * *

Seven people sat around a table in a library, on the table lay news articles pictures and photographs all centered around one girl with black hair and silver eyes, a girl named Ruby.

One of the seven hit the table a blond lady in a bomber jacket and loose fitting jeans. "WHERE THE HELL IS SHE!?" frustration clear in the voice but desperation breaking free "it's been two weeks since her disappearance and there's no evidence of where or what happened to her"

Another from the group responded to the blonde. This time it was a girl with amber eyes and big bow wearing a majority of black "I don't understand it either Yang, it's like she just disappeared into thin air no ransom note or anything to do with a usual kidnapping especially if it was the white fang"

Another woman with snow-white hear and grey attire, her hand holding and tapping her chin in deep thought "Nothing is adding up but let's recap on all the important information so were all on the same page" her tone calm but commanded everyone's focus. All the people at the table nodded,

"First she gets a phone call about Yang and Ruby's uncle being in trouble"

Everyone at the table nodded

"All eight of us went to the spot where the distress signal was being transmitted finding a big White Fang base"

"Knowing we all could handle ourselves especially with all the experiences we've had throughout the past year handling the white fang, even roman. So we went in an—"

"WE BROKE THEIR LEGS!" yelled out a petite woman with short orange hair causing everyone to divert their attention to let out a chuckle while they look to the part of the table where she was now standing

"That's a good way to sum it up Nora, go on Wiess," said the guy sitting next to her with moppy blonde hair

The woman with snow-white hair composed herself and continued "As Nora said, we broke their legs, after the battle, there was no sign of Qrow"

"When we all went to meet outside of their base we all showed up except Ruby"

"It was a trap…." Said a guy at the table he had a streak of pink hair that contrasted with his dark raven black hair

"Yea… but why Ruby….." said a woman with red hair and wearing Spartan armor

There was silence

"It doesn't matter why it matters that we find her…" Yang growled

Yang then groggily pulled up a chair and sat down hiding her face in her hands

"It's…. All my fault" grief filled her words "I should have protected her instead of just—"she let out a sigh while crumbling within herself.

"It's not your fault yang, we were there too, we should have been more careful," said Juane.

The others all nodded in approval

"But I'm her older sister" Yang's tone rising "it's my job to protect her be there for her, I FAILED, I let my own emotions distract me from what's important and it cost me everything…." Yang began to sob.

Weiss came around and sat next to yang while putting her arm over her "it's going to be ok Yang, we'll find her, with me you Blake and the rest of team JNPR-"

"Don't forget almost all of the hunters on Remnant" Blake added. "Especially with their help as well," said Weiss as well as form a genuine smile after Blake's comment. "And when we do find her and the one who is responsible, take it from here Nora"

"WE'LL BREAK THEIR LEGS!" the orange hair girl assured.

Yang looked up at everyone present while wiping away the tears from her eyes "thank you guys" she said soft-spoken

Everyone then sat in silence appreciating each other's company when two guys came in one with messy blonde hair a monkey tail in messy clothes, the other with blue hair in a comb-over wearing a dress coat over his shirt and wearing jeans. "Hey everyone," the blonde monkey said and turned over to look at Blake "Hey Blake," he said with a nod and a wink. Blake smiled back "oh, hey sun"

Yang quickly got to business "did you guys find anything new"

Sun and the blue-haired guy he walked in with walked up and leaned on the table and sighed "Me and Neptune talked to a couple of people we knew who had some information about the Fang but we didn't find anything new…." The tone at the whole table was now filled with uncertainty as everyone put their minds onto what to do next for a couple of minutes until Neptune spoke up "Hey, we're not getting anywhere fast as we are right now and I think the stress is starting to get to all of us" he paused "I don't think many of us have slept much in these last two weeks, especially Yang" he lazily pointed to where she sat next to Weiss. "How about we go out and take a day off and get our minds off of what's happening for a little while so we can come back with a fresh new perspective even hunters and huntresses need to take a break"

"I'm kind of agreeing with Neptune on this one I think we take a break and come back fresh tomorrow will be a great idea," Weiss said

Everyone else at the table contemplated it for a second before silently agreeing

Yang Retorted But we can't stop now we have to find Ruby before something truly bad happens to her we don't know if she's a hostage or some sickos new plaything! She, Sh-"Blake stopped Yang's mumbling.

"look Yang, I know we all know how serious this is but we're not getting anywhere right now, maybe a break is something we need" Blake paused and gave yang a reassuring smile "Remember when I was in the same exact position when you told me to take it easy when I was trying to take on the Fang" her smile didn't falter

Yang tried to muster some pride and power but lost to her exhaustion

"Fine…" she muttered "But only for tonight, then we double our efforts when we get back" feigning a smile while pointing at everyone present

Everyone at the table smiled as well as the stress and tension was partially lifted from their shoulders

"Yea this is probably what we need to get our heads screwed back on," the redhead said.

* * *

In the night sky, the Vale city skyline contrasted brightly against the darkness along with flying white warships and a stadium, as life went on into the late hours of the night

Nine people walked into one of the many Plazas

"This is the plaza I've been telling you guys about!" Weiss said excitingly "I always spent my time here whenever my father brought me with him to vale for business trips"

The others in the group took in the artistic fountain with a statue on top surrounded by a lush field of flowers. "It's…, beautiful" Phyrra said.

"I knew at least some of you guys will appreciate it" Weiss smirked

The group continued chatting while walking around the plaza the Blake and sun were spending some time by the fountain. Phyrra walked around with Juane keeping close with him and checking out some of the local stores along with Ren and Nora. Weiss decided to take Neptune on a personal tour around the plaza.

Yang

Yang took a seat at the closest bench she could find facing into the plaza she looked around trying to take in the sights and the architecture but couldn't get her mind off a certain someone, she rested her chin on her hand and let out a sigh.

Yang's eyes wondered until they spotted a certain spot through an ally way. An old ice-cream shop. One that brought up some good memories

"Guys!" she called "I know a great place to get some ice-cream"

Yang managed to gather everyone and they went to get some deserts before they entered the alleyway Juane had to stop and quickly fell behind. One person from the group quickly noticed

"Juane, you okay!" Phyrra called out to Juane

"Yea, go ahead I'll catch up" he yelled back

Juane then tied his shoe and went to join back up with the group that is now almost at the other side of the alley

As Juane made his way through the alley he was about to pass the space the separated the two buildings when someone grabbed Juane from the back and pulled him into the niche in the alleyway

"Just Take my money don't hurt me!" Juane cried out

The thug quickly covered Juanes mouth with his hand while putting a figure his lips

"SSSHHHHH, SHUSH I'm not here to mug you," the guy said in a hushed tone

That's when Juane got a good look at the guy and saw that he had a white grim mask on his face his eyes quickly went wide as he suddenly struggled again the guy then tightened his grip on Jaune

"Stop it will you I'm not here to do anything to you, just hear me out because it relates to your missing friend!" Juane stopped struggling

"Promise to stay quiet"

Juane Noded

The thug slowly lifted his hand and with silence and backed up

"Look there's someone out there that knows what happened to… her"

"He wants to speak to you just you at a secure place, alone"

"But why, what does this have to do with Ruby?" The Messy blond said

"I don't know but take this" the now informant handed Juane a piece of paper. "it's all the information for the meeting, remember just you and nobody else, got it" Juane looked at what the thug gave to him and then looked up "well umm, thank you I didn't seem to catch your-" the informant was gone footsteps clattered in the distance "name".

Juane took a quick glance at the paper before folding it up and putting it back in his wallet.

Suddenly a certain redhead rounded the corner to see Juane backed against the wall with shell shock on his face "Juane?" she asked

Juane stared at the wall not noticing her presence for a moment before coming returning to reality

"w-wha-what" Juane looked towards the Spartan "Phyrra?"

"What Happened to you! We're waiting for you at that ice-cream place Yang told us about?"

"I…" "I… got so—rrely mugged" the to be huntsman pieced together

'Confusion formed on Phyrra "what do you mean"

"I got mugged!" Juane quickly spat out

"Oh my Oum, Juane" she quickly ran up and gave him a tight hug Juane had his arms out in surprise

"I glad you're okay, we should have stayed together that way this wouldn't have happened! An-" Juane interrupted her mumbling while breaking away from the hug

"Look I'm fine Phyrra," Juane said "he just got away with just a little over twenty lien" he shrugged.

"Alright well we have to tell someone about this, we can't let him get away!" Phyrra quickly started off and Juane stopped

"wait don't do it, it's just some petty theft and I don't want any more trouble so let's go catch up with the others and get some of that good ice cream yang was telling us about" Juane smiled

Phyrra stared at Juane contemplating her actions before she faltered to his reassurance "Alright, but you have to tell me what happened so that we can go over it for our training sessions" Phyrra looked at Juane seriously.

"Deal" Juane said "now let's go gets some ice-cream," he said excitedly.

It was late now at Beacon academy and while most people are asleep, two and three-fourths teams just arrived back at the dorms.

* * *

Blake was walking through the halls back to the dorm her team's room without her bow on and wearing chaste night attire, she begrudgingly muttered something "stupid garbage duty, hands all sticky, could be sleeping right now…." Blake soon approached the door to her room across from JNPR's room she slowly moved her hand to open the door when the ears on top of her head caught wind of a muffled voice of a boisterous woman behind the doors to the team across the way "Your meeting someone who has information on Ruby?! We Have to tell the others" Blake silently put her ear next on the door to JNPR's room "No, we can't tell them, he said he wants to meet me alone" a boy said solemnly. "I don't want to worry Yang and the rest of her team until we get the information we need from the guy"

"Wait," another voice said, everyone in the room got quiet

Suddenly the door opened and Blake fell in. the fatigue not helping her as she clumsily hit the floor "AAaack"

"Blake?" the Champion red head reacted

Blake quickly got up and composed yourself "I know you got information on Ruby Juane, spill," Blake said while she walked over and poking Juane who was sitting on his bed, in his chest, Amber eyes starting with mal-intent.

Juane put his hands up "Alright, Alright calm down, how long were you listening to us" the leader of JNPR asked.

"Enough" she retorted and crossing her arms as well as giving the blonde a determined look

"The beginning then" he muttered

"In short someone wants to get in contact with me because he says that he has important information about Ruby but he wants to only talk to only me, alone" Juane then handed her a piece of paper with the information

Blake studied the paper giving she saw the time and coordinates for the meeting "hmm tomorrow night at what from a simple guess a place just outside the vale walls" Blake then noticed the handwriting and her eyes went wide. With mixed feelings on her face, she gave the paper back to Juane and found a chair to slump in and stared off into space.

The room then became quiet

Juane looked at his teammates for a hint on what to do but they gave him the same worried expression

Juane then decided to break the ice "Blake?"

Silence

"Blake?"

"He's actually a part of this, that sick bastard" she muttered her eyes started to become watery

"Blake, you feeling ok?"

Blake turned to Juane with mixed feelings "I know who wrote this" she took a deep breath and her gazed drooped to the floor.

"It's Adam"

Juane looked at Blake confused

"Adam?"

"Taurus, leader of the white fang that we've been fighting for the past year now; you can't be serious about going alone! What if it's a trap?"

Juane then gave a smile "well I was about to go over the plan when you decided to join in"

Blake humped. "Fine, well what's your plan then"

Juane scratched the pack of his head "Well the plan is that I would go meet him, alone, but with support of my team who will hang back" Juane then gestured to Ren, Nora , and Phyrra "If things go south then I'll give them the signal to make sure nothing goes terribly wrong"

Nora decided to stand up and seized the moment "we'll break the legs of anyone who threatens our great leader" she then reached for a high five which Ren complied eliciting a smile from Ren, Phyrra and Juane.

He then looked back at Blake "but only me and my team are going, I don't really know how Yang will handle this and this is one of the only leads that we've gotten since Ruby's disappearance, so can you please trust us?"

Blake looked at Juane and to the rest of Team JNPR, and gave a nod.

"I trust you"

* * *

The trees swayed in the cool night winds as they slightly glistened under the shattered moon that shone brightly in the night sky. Team JNPR led by Ren walked through the forest past a collapsed hole in a consistently waist high and considerably thick wall of metal that stretched out of view. They walk past trees that were growing on the remnants of buildings that had simple geometric architecture startling a flock of crows along the way. They continued on until they came upon a clearing with large ruined building with a large collapsed tower of metal right next to it. Ren looked at his scroll and stopped.

"We're here" Ren silently announced

Juane went to inform the group with his shield opened and equipped, sword sheathed. And chest piece worn over his sweater "Alright guys so let's go over the plan one more time" all present paid full attention "I go in and get the information while you all stay outside here while I go in and talk to Adam, if anything goes wrong I'll switch on the emergency S.O.S. on my scroll which should alert you guys and anyone else around"

Juane paused

"Any questions"

One raised their hand

"Yes, Phyrra"

"Are you sure about this Juane, I don't think it's a good idea"

"I have to" The leader stated "For Ruby"

Phyrra looked at Juane and gave him a quick and tight hug that he returned Phyrra broke away

"We'll stay in that over there with that crow perched on top of it until you give us the signal" Phyrra explained.

Her along with Ren and Nora went into a building the bordered the clearing.

Juane turned around and started heading over to the main entrance of the decaying building and stopped right before the entrance and checked himself: Chest plate secured, sword ready, shield on his back opened and scroll ready. He took a deep breath and exhaled

"For Ruby" he went inside.

* * *

Past the entrance Juane walked pass some vines and overgrowth hallway until he came upon a large room with stairs on both sides leading to upper parts of the building and an elevator shaft exposed Sitting in the exposed hole overlooking the room was an individual with a hood that hid his face but not the bull horns on the side of his head a long red sword was stashed on his back.

Juane saw the figure and stopped right after the overgrowth upon entering the room. The room stood silent for a second as the sounds of nature filled the night.

Juane was the first to speak "Uhh, Hello! Are you the guy who wanted to talk to me?" his voice echoed off the walls of the moldy building.

"I am" The hooded figure hoped down "and I guess your Juane Arc then" the figure then looked around Juane "I also see you came alone as I requested" the figure then pulled his hood down to show his face "uh… Thank you"

"Ok well, what's the information that you wanted to give me," Juane said

Taurus slouched and gestured "I will tell you everything, Follow me"

Juane Followed Taurus into the depths of the old building passing over lumps of metal covered in moss almost tripping after hitting his foot on a dirt pile that hid a lump of metal.

Taurus then turned into a corner into a room with a collapsed roof and a big hole in the middle that had a faint white Glow emanating from an unknown source in its depths. Taurus stopped at the edge of the hole and stared into its white abyss.

And it too stared back.

Juane saw Taurus stare into the hole which caused him to become uncomfortable so he decided to break the ice. "So before you tell me about Ruby, Why do you want to speak to me and not Blake? I thought you and Blake used to have something"

Taurus slowly turned back and started walking away from the hole suddenly shaken. The hardened persona he had when they met had started to fade and now Taurus started to solemnly walk away from the hole. "I don't think I can face her anymore or anyone for that matter….." he paused "Especially after what I have done".

"Well, what happened," Juane Said absorbing each word he said.

"Usually when we kidnap people, it's usually in order to further our cause, to send a message"

"But there were these people who wanted her out of the picture…" for her having silver eyes

"After we captured they made us we….. We…."

Juanes fist tightened "What, What did you do to HER!" Juane to some steps towered Taurus

"We threw her into that pit!" he Sayed "Oh god…." Taurus collapsed to his knees

Juane whole figure stood stiff computing the information that was given to him

"All Because I was scared afraid"

"I could have done something"

"All because she had Silver eyes, SILVER EYES!" Tears streamed down the White Fang leader's face

A Feminine voice filled the room and Taurus's blood froze

"Pathetic," It said.

A thing in a womanly form pleasing to the eyes appeared through the entrance to the room followed by 2 other people one with silver hair and one with green

The thing spoke again "you simple animals can't handle killing a simple girl"

It started to strut closer to the bull Faunus "Now, why don't you came back where you belong and we'll treat this like it never happened, save for the boy and his friends" she turned her head towered Juane its hands started to ignite into furious fire

Taurus continued to keep his head down not reacting to the thing

It smirked as it stood above Taurus "I'll take your silence as obedience" it started looking at Juane along with the lackeys and started walking close weapons and mystical powers in hand to get rid of the evidence.

The thing started to make its way towards Jaune

Seeing this Juane immediately took out his scroll and fumbled with it; unable to get a good grip

"c'mon, c'mon…." the blonde hurriedly said

The things spoke "Oh Mr. Arc such a shame, guess this is what you get for trying to play the hero"

Juane was frozen in fear

The Faunus spoke up "No cinder..."

The trio turned around

"Excuse me?"

"I'm tired of living in fear" he continued

"I'm tired of my people being used as your cannon fodder"

The Bull horned man stood defiantly sword unsheathed and poised, the uncertainty that used to be there replaced with new purpose

"And when I'm done with you three the world will know of what's happening and I'm going to change the Fang back to what it originally was!"

The thing just shrugged "well that's a shame" it took a couple of steps at Taurus and its hands erupted in a fire "I guess the white fang have to choose a new leader then just like the last one and that stupid girl!"

Something clicked in Juane upon hearing those few words

"Well I'm not them" Taurus replied, his sword ready

The lackeys stood back while the thing leading them started to gather energy in its hands and walked with presence towered Taurus "with you and blubber boy over there, the plan will go without a hitch" she raised her right hand "it's a shame I couldn't—Arrgh!"

Juane tackled the thing and started throwing punches

"This is for Beacon" one punch

"This is for my team and team RWBY" another blow

"And this is for Ruby!" Juane raised his hand back for a final blow

"ENOUGH!" flames erupted out of thin air around cinder, throwing Juane away and crashing into the ground. The lackeys backed away a safe distance away from the furry on the other side of the room.

Taurus made his move, moving quickly and swinging his sword, he was able to get a couple of hits in but it was for naught as he was caught by a barrage of summoned fire engulfing him draining his aura causing Taurus to collapse

The thing now stood over him "I should have done this earlier it would have saved me the trouble" she again raised he hand for the final blow.

Juane with his shield in front jumped in between Taurus and cinder as she unleashed an explosion of fire and fall magic throwing Juane back

Time seemed to slow down for Juane at that moment he could see he was now flying through the air shield on his wrist but his sword lost from his grip; he looked over his team in the doorway weapons in hand along with another person behind them as he began his descent into the hole he could see the shock on their faces and Phyrra trying to reach out to him but that was the last thing he saw when he took the plunge into the hole

When he hit the bottom he hit a spherical object and felt like running through a glass window and he was thrown through nowhere as lights and the universe spilled all around him

Juane felt like he was continuously being pulled apart and squished together

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he let out and then everything went black

* * *

Tom sat in the command ship, the Philadelphia part of the 8th fleet currently stationed in orbit around Harvest. Tom was sitting in the center of one of the server rooms of the Philadelphia with his brown hair in a mess and glasses somewhere on his face or hair while he was intently focused on a computer with information and parameters that tom was steadily adding to while humming something about Major Tom.

A door slide opens revealing a piolet with an SRS logo on the helmet, a shield on his back and a logo on his chest plate with 2 yellow arcs.

Tom still typed fervently unaware of the pilot's presence. The pilot walked behind tom and looked at what he was doing

"HEY, what's this, your new Fanfiction or something?" the pilot said sarcastically while slamming his hands on the table near Tom

Tom flinched and turned around to talk to the person behind him.

"Sweet Jesus Juane!" tom gasped, nearly jumping out of his chair "why do you have to do that every time you come in here; can't you just come in and say hi like a regular person!" Tom threw his hands up sarcastically.

Juane took off the helmet with a smirk on his face "Nope, that's why I'm a pilot"

"Yea, without that shield thing of yours, you'll be like every other soldier I know, dead"

"Touché, Tom, Touché" Juane pulled up a chair that sat across the way from Tom and his laptop

"So then, what are you working on then" Juane pointed while leaning on the table.

Tom sighed while looking at the computer

"Well it's kind of a side project I've been working on for our titans" Tom explained "it's supposed to help the vanguard titans use other unfamiliar cores if one such as yourself were to pick up a new titan weapon on your missions or whatever"

"That actually sounds pretty awesome! When ya going to let me and VT test it out!"

Tom looked up from his work and chuckled

"Soon but I'm not sure when it will totally help in your search for that one gal" tom continued "while on that topic how's that coming along" tom inquired

Juane looked at tom with frustration "As of this moment… nothing yet"

Tom looked at Juane empathetically "Jeez Juane, isn't this the tenth planet you've searched"

"Fifteenth" Juane sighed "I checked fifteen planets over the five years I've been a pilot"

Tom looked at stared at his friend's defeated face "look if you need any help I can ask some favors from some people maybe even get an advocate?"

"Juane looked up "No, want to keep this between the few people I trust like you and me. If this gets out then the IMC could also be on the case to or worse…"

Tom stared at Juane

"Alright well if you need it, the option is always there"

A light on Juanes wrist along with an annoyingly attention-grabbing tune.

"Oh looks like time to train Jane, gotta scoot" Juane quickly started heading out the door parallel to the one he entered in.

"Why do you train her anyway, she's just a rifleman?" tom inquired before Juane exited the door

Juane looked back through the doorframe

"Because she has something that most pilots don't" Juane then continued to the session.

* * *

Jane sat in the titan hangar near the sim pod section patiently waiting for her mentor

Mentor in question was late and was checking her datapad and marking off today as the tenth session of training with Arc

She leaned back in her chair

"Just like college" she huffed

A pilot then entered the hanger in a rush

When Jane looked up she didn't see a pilot or anyone for that matter

She did though, see a shimmer in the shape of a man on top of one of the Titans

"I can see ya, you know" the pilot then uncloaked while dropping to the ground and started walking towered her

"Your spotting is getting better" Juane then took off his helmet and put it on the table Jane was sitting at

"Sweet, do I get a reward?" Jane said sarcastically

Juane chuckled "Yes, a nice all-expense paid session in the sim pod"

"Alright, I get where you're going with this" Jane then headed into the pod along with her mentor

As the Jane entered the pod green lights and lasers showered her view and she was now standing in a ruined stone building of some sort while in full pilot gear. She looked out of a window to see it located in a large clearing in a forest now.

"This is new" Jane commented and walking out of the building

Juane then materialized in the field in front of the ruin

"Tom helped me make this from one of my memories and I think this place would be perfect for today's lesson"

A distance away a point was highlighted on her hud. Suddenly she saw something falling from the sky in a ball of fire

Jane's eyes went wide with excitement under her helmet "You're not serious right"

Suddenly the falling object caused a sudden sonic boom and the Vanguard Class titan with a majority of it painted military green and yellow on the shoulders and knees, landed on the ground causing a shockwave that caused Jane to lose her balance

Juane stood firm and continued stepping putting one foot on a rock and called out to the "C'mon VT just like we practiced"

The vanguard titan then started walking to a conveniently placed bolder behind where Juane was positioned and imitated Juane except putting a hand to his eye like he's looking off into the distance

"Today!" the veteran exclaimed, "I'm going to teach you how to pilot a Titan!"

Jane could barely contain her excitement. "Hell fuckin yes! Where do I start?"

The next half hour of the session Juane taught Jane the ins and outs of piloting a titan with Jane tripping plenty of times but always getting up. After a while, she started to get the movement down.

Juane opened VT's cockpit

"Ok that's it for today, remember to keep practicing your routine"

Jane opened her cockpit she was in the scorch

"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, What about combat!" Jane yelled out putting her hand out "can I please fight one thing before we end the session?"

Juane looked at his watch and chuckled

"Fine, just one," he said, Juane and VT then backed up by the ruined stone building "Alright Jane, you ready?"

"Ready!" She answered

"Remember to eject when your Titan is doomed and—"

"I get it, just let me fight something" Jane punched the air

Juane smirked and pulled out a list of simulation opponents and scrolled through them "let's see Kane, Ash, that one crazy lady, oh" Juane made his decision "VT, spawn Enemy EMFP1.V1 right here" Juane pointed to a popup hollo map

VT spoke up "Are you sure pilot, this may be too much for rifleman słuchacz, I recommend another selection"

"She'll be fine, now release the beast!"

Jane turned around the face Juane "Wait, beast?"

The trees behind her suddenly started to shake and move out of the way in the distance

Jane closed the cockpit door and hurriedly pointed her thermite launcher in the direction of the noise

The trees suddenly gave way to scorpion the size of two cottages side by side and covered in bone plating on the top of its carapace including the stinger tail and claws.

The beast let out a high pitched screech announcing its presence

"HOLYSHITWHATTHEFUCH!" Jane said as she immediately fired the thermite launcher at the scorpion only nicking the upper carapace and melting some trees behind it.

The beast let out a squeal after being nicked with thermite and charged at the Scorch titan

"RELOAD RELOAD RELOAD" Jane quickly retreated not turning away from the unnatural beast

The next shot of thermite was loaded into the chamber but the scorpion was already upon her, tackling the Titan and pinning it with its body weight

Jane tried to bring up the launcher but the scorpion used one of its pincers to clamp down her right arm, using the other to strike the cockpit

"Warning, critical damage being taken, recommend immediate action" the titan AI recommended

"I'm on it, I'm on it" Jane frantically looking around for a way out unable to think as the condition of her titan quickly drained until it showed yellow and black

The scorpion went for the finishing blow raising its stinger ready to finish the fight

In a last-ditch effort Jane raised her titan's left hand to defend herself from the blow unknowingly unleashing firewall directly into the scorpions face melting bone and flesh.

The scorpion screeched and quickly dismounted the titan

Jane quickly got up and continued the momentum quickly firing the thermite launcher, hitting the tale of the beast and melting it off. "YEA, COME AND GET SOME!"

The beast howled again and charged again but Jane was ready as she unleashed the firewall in anticipation without reloading the thermite launcher. And the beast stopped in its tracks before coming to close.

"YEA, YOU CAN'T ATTACK ME I GOT A FIRE SHIELD" the trainee yelled in triumph failing to realize the indicators at the center at the screen depleted

The shield flickered away to the dismay of Jane

She shook the arm only to get sputters from its palm

"Uh oh…" Jane realized her mistake which was quickly capitalized by the scorpion as it tackled the titan down again

The beast rose its pincer up to finish the fight when a loud Bang rang through the air and the beast dropped dead with a hole right through the carapace

The beast then collapsed disappeared in blue light and pixels

The scorch rested at its spot before the cockpit flew open revealing a pilot in training scrambling out of the cockpit. When out of the cockpit she collapsed on the belly of the titan huffing trying to catch her breath

Juane the mentor let out a chuckle as he walked over to the downed scorch and its pilot and disembarked to check on his student

"Did…. I win…?" Jane groggily asked

"No, but you did put up a good fight against that Death Stalker especially since we haven't gone over tactics yet"

Jane slowly sat up to face her mentor

"Thanks, now I'm going to ask, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING?!"

"Like I said before that, was a Death Stalker and this whole area were standing in is from my home planet"

"Wait your home planet has randomly roaming giant scorpions!"

Juane rubbed the back of his head

"Um…. Not really but" he was interrupted by VT

"Juane, Major Anderson requests your presence at the bridge for an important mission briefing"

* * *

 _Any advice or sugestions would be great!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch 2**

 **Right Place Wrong Time**

* * *

Two ships of the 8th fleet along with the Philadelphia were currently orbiting in sync with the 6th fleet around the equator of the planet of Praefectizeus.

Juane was currently in the dropship hanger, piloting VT with the cockpit open, briefing the platoon that would be assisting him on this mission.

"Alright 50th platoon here's where we're dropping" Juane pointed to a map of a compound that was on top of a hill and concentric with a cliff face that was projected on the wall of the hanger

"Our mission is to drop into deep IMC territory to take this critical location before they scuttle it"

The SRS pilot then paused to let the information sink in and continued to tell everyone the plan in detail including where people will be dropped along with mechanized support, while the veteran SRS pilot will be dropped along with other pilots into the middle of the compound to make time for the ground forces to capture the compound.

The SRS Pilot then concluded.

"Though the planet is almost fully under Militia control were dropping into deep IMC territory so we have to hold the compound until the main force of the 6th fleet reaches us" Juane finished "Any Questions?"

The pilot was only met with silent anticipation.

"Alright then, now, let's go kick some IMC ASS!"

The call to action was quickly met with the resounding of war cry and all involved getting into their respective drop pods and titans

The courtyard in the center of the compound was filled with serenity and silence the only natural thing around was a bird perched on a dead tree which was interrupted by a series of sonic booms that suddenly went off and a Vanguard titan along with others landed in the plaza and immediately stood up put its particle wall down and a veteran pilot came flying out of the cockpit with Spitfire LMG in hand along with 40 mm tracker cannon to back it up.

"ALRIGHT! Who wants some of….." a sudden observation then hit Pilot "this…"

The pilot looked around checking down the 4 main paths between the buildings around the compound seeing nobody.

"Where is everybody?" Juane questioned to no one in particular except some weathered stalkers and Specters doting the landscape

The question was immediately investigated by the walking smart tank "Scanning for hostiles," VT looked at his partner "Scans indicate no hostiles in this general area" VT then walked around the circular area scanning the concentric buildings "but I do share your inquiry Juane, there seems to be no evidence of any living IMC personnel"

Juane took a quick look around, taking in the grey skies and the buildings that were near the edge of the cliff and called out to VT

"VT, Make sure to tell all troops to secure the compound and to fortify this place, we're going to be here for a while"

"Relaying"

The pilot took a glance around the court yard before pulling out a glove and putting it on

"Pilot don't forget about the new protocols" the titan reminded

"Oh right," the pilot facepalmed "send me the calibrations"

The titan went through the check list

"Arc position located and verified…"

"Calculating for Andersons Law…"

The titan finished the check list and faced juane

"Grizzly Glove Calibrations complete, transmitting the information to you now"

Juane's hud showed the notification and the glove on his left hand started to glow a faint blue

"So how far back would this take me?"

"Calculations showed that the safest time to travel back to is 3.56567454-"

"That's enough, I get it"

"-years ago, but can be adjusted at your own risk"

"Ok, well mind giving me the general location of the Ark so I know where to start looking"

VT pointed towards the ground

"Scans have shown that the Arc is about 30 meters underneath our feat but I cannot locate an entrance"

Juane put a hand to his chin to think "This is going to be a little tougher than I thought"

The pilot then checked himself before putting the glove up hand open palm "whelp no better time to start than the present" the pilot activated the glove and continued his investigation

* * *

Jane was currently carrying a large crate of Arc traps with help from the standard issue EXO suit. The place being empty when they got here put everyone on edge especially with apparent sightings of ghosts going on within the past couple of hours but the job of fortifying helped to keep people's minds off of the oddities going on around them.

As Jane was quickly trudging down of the facility with windows that showed a dim grey sky with flashes of light above the clouds. She suddenly tripped on nothing, spilling all the supplies she was carrying.

"God fucking….." and proceeded to pick up what she dropped when a helping hand came to help

"OHMYGOSHAREYOUOK" though the helping hand seemed to have come out of thin air Jane gladly accepted it.

"I'm ok, Thank you, don't know what the bloody hell happened there" Jane got up and gathered herself. She got a good look at the helping hand

The petite girl wore a grey uniform had raven black hair with red highlights.

"Well mind helping me with these arc traps" Jane pointed nonchalantly to the mess of traps on the floor

"Of course!" the girl said

After the grunt gathered all the supplies with the help from the stranger they continued down the hall with windows that now showed clear skies. The girl decided to break the silance

"Don't mind if I ask but what do you do here do? Are you a student here too? You don't look like the usual people around here?"

Jane didn't know where the questions came from but went with it

"Well that's because I'm a rifleman, but I'm training to be a pilot one day" the soon to be pilot then looked up and sighed "But that's going to be a while"

"Whoa, a pilot that's what I'm training here too! I'm surprised I haven't seen you around but I kind of just got here to….." the girl then stopped which went unnoticed by the rifleman as she turned a corner and put the boxes in its new designated spot.

"Anyways I didn't catch your name, Mines Jane" the rifleman turned around after putting down the boxes only to receive no response "Um hello" she rounded the corner she came from to find no trace of the person who just helped her "Hello?"

The voice that answered answer was not the one who helped her

"Dammit Jane stop dilly-dallying and get your ass over here!"

Jane stiffened "Yes Sir!"

Jane took one last look before looking back at the cloudy sky "must've been drop pod jitters" she muttered and hurried back to her squad.

* * *

The SRS walked through the halls of the complex seeing no obvious signs of a way to get to the arc directly, he had been jumping between the past and present to find answers. Where the halls were dark were now filled with sunlight and more notably people, nearly all the people looked starkly young and wore a grey button up uniform except for a select few who wore suits and casual clothing.

"Dammit, it's been 3 months since we got here and we got nothing VT" he frustratingly muttered in his helmet

The clumsy knight continued down the hall looking into the rooms as all the people in grey uniforms sat in seats in rows that faced the front of the room. The pilot continued to vent "what is also got me on edge is that the IMC has not sent any forces to check up on the place it's like they're actively avoiding our position"

There was a pause before the AI in the helmet spoke up "I too am curious as to why the IMC haven't investigated our position especially for its importance"

A person in a military uniform opened a door in a hurry and called out to Junae.

"Hey, you're a pilot right?"

The SRS Pilot forgetting he was not invisible was surprised but played it off, turning around to meet the inconvenience. "Uh yes I am, what do you need…" the pilot's eyes looked at the buttons on the man's uniform "Sir" and saluted

The man chuckled

"Ease up Pilot, I know you mercenary types aren't ones for formalities" the veteran took a breath and looked at the pilot "I know it's not explicitly in your contract but I need you to sub for my class while I go to a meeting, I have to go to, good luck"

The officer started to leave.

"Uh-"

"Just tell them about what it takes to be a pilot or what not, make something up" the man called out.

Before the detective could realize it he was standing in the front of a lecture hall with seats and desks that were positioned in a pattern of being higher than the ones in front of them. Though the class was only quarterly filled the veteran pilot felt all the eyes on him.

An alarm on the podium brought Juane back into the reality

"Oh sweet Oum what have I gotten myself into" he mumbled under his breath

The pilot then walked to the smart board and grabbed a stick that was leaning next to the podium and improvised.

"Alight now, I'm going to start off with a simple question, what is the most important rule for being a pilot?"

* * *

In the center of the complex in the present day a loud whistle went off as traditionalist Sargent was training the squad under his command

"If you don't finish your laps as a squad I'll start over today's training!"

Jane was currently falling behind her squad

A squad mate noticed this and slowed down in order to keep pace next to Jane. "C'mon Jane, were almost done let's finish this!"

Jane quickly retorted

"Thank you captain obvious" she huffed out

The redheaded squad mate was not shocked by the answer retorted "oh shut up aren't you supposed to be a pilot in training or—" the universe suddenly flashed around them and the squadmate found himself currently standing in the courtyard that was now filled with sunlight with the tree in the center blooming with pink flowers.

The redheaded squad mate looked around in a state of shock while Jane picked herself up off the ground dusting herself off

"Dammit, I always trip every time this happens…"

The squadmate looked a Jane.

"What do you mean this happened before!?"

"Yea this has been happening to me ever since we got here and, wait you see it to Boris?" Jane relaxed "Thought I was hallucinating this whole time"

Boris was rubbing the back of his head

"I can see why you think that now what happens next usually?"

"When this happens it's usually around this one girl and-" her voice trailed off as she started looking around till she found her target "THERE" she started walked towed the tree in the center of the plaza where a petite girl with frizzy hair deep bags under her eyes sat surrounded with papers all around

"Hey, Blumey!"

The girl under the tree looked up and gasped "JANE!"

Before the grunt could realize it she was suddenly hugged by a speeding bullet of a woman

"Jane it's been forever but nothing much has happened it's so boring here and—"

"Woah Woah slow down" Jane allowed Blumey to let go of her

"Oh my bad"

"also let me introduce you to Borris"

Borris stood there in the back still trying to comprehend the situation until he realized Jane was talking about him.

"Oh hey" he awkwardly waved

The petite woman looked down while scratching the back of her head awkwardly

"Sorry, it's just that it's been a long time, I've been crushed by all this school work and I'm having a hard time getting to know people around here..."

Jane let out a laugh

"YOU, having a hard time making friends, now that's hard to believe!"

"No! I'm super serious aside from my squad your one of the few people who will actually have a conversation with me!" Blumey let out a frustrated sigh "it's like they don't even want to associate with me or something"

Jane looked at Blumey and put her arm around her

"look I know it might be tough especially when you're in a place where you know nobody" Jane pointed at Blumey "I'm going to tell you what my pa told me when I was in your spot in college he told me that when things get tough you just gotta push through it cause its only temporary especially when You got your whole life to ahead of ya"

Blumey looked at Jane and smiled "Thanks Jane" she said shakily "you always know what to say"

"Well my mentor always tells me to always look on the positive side of things"

"He's one heck of a mentor then"

A simulicron wearing a suit approached from Behind Blume

"your advocate is here to see you, he's in the cafeteria"

Blumey's eyes suddenly got wide at the mention of her advocate

"Oh, dangit I forgot he was coming today!"

She quickly turned around and speedily grabbed her school bag from under the tree and started stuffing papers into it

This peaked Borris's interest

"Wait who's your advocate, never heard of anyone having a specific one before"

Blumey was quickly putting the papers into her backpack

"Well um…" she hastily finished putting all the papers in the backpack and was quickly walking away to her appointment followed by the simulicron

"I don't fully remember his name it's like Mr. Mador or something" she put her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice as she got farther away

"I'll let you know next time I see you!" and with that Blumey ran through the door to her appointment.

Janes and Borris's vision suddenly became blurry and overtaken by white disappeared to reveal the same a leafless tree where a lively one once stood before in the courtyard.

She turned around to see Boris looking checking himself frantically

"How are you feeling Boris?"

Borris then looked up at Jane

"Holy shit I can't believe that just happened! I always heard about time distortions ever since Typhon happened but never thought I'd experience it myself!"

Boris took a couple of deep breaths

"How many times do you experience these things?"

Jane put a hand to her chin while looking towered the ground

"Well this has been going on every day since we got here, sometimes twice a day all centered around meeting this girl"

Borris was dumbfounded

"Every day! You're saying that for the past 3 months that we have been holding this place that you have been accidentally time traveling"

Jane started to collapse within herself

"Yeah—"

"Well, why haven't you told anyone especially Captain Arc!" the squadmate pressured

Jane went on the defensive.

"What was I supposed to do Boris? Tell somebody. Who's gonna believe me when I say that I'm time traveling in tandem with a silver-eyed schoolgirls time here at this dam place! And—"

She was interrupted by the squad sergeant

"What in God Dam Harmony are you two yipping about!? You better give me a dam reason before….." the sergeant's voice trailed off as the cloud started to clear to reveal a grand and welcoming sight

The Sergeant quickly regained his composure

"Dam, they're here already?"

The skies now show the ships of the sixth fleet proudly in the sky along with aerial transports and jets

Boris regained his composure, now overjoyed from the sight

"HELL YEA IT'S THE SIXTH FLEET! YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS" Boris asked rhetorically

Jane took the bait "yea it means we can finally leave this dammed place"

Borris craned his head at Jane

"Your no fun sometimes Jane"

The Sargent now spoke up now on top of a Reaver near the center of the plaza

"ALRIGHT YOU MAGOTS YOU KNOW THE DRILL GET THE GEAR PACKED UP AND GET READY FOR DEBRIEF!" the sergeant then looked around to make sure everyone was now listening to him "AND THE ALCOHOLS ON ME TONIGHT BOY'S!" The whole courtyard suddenly filled with cheers and hoots in support of the sergeant.

"NOW GET GOIN" with that order all present went as they were told.

While many watched the spectacle of the front finally reaching their location many didn't pay attention to the lone Vanguard titan at the edge of the plaza.

* * *

Before the arival of the six fleet, VT was sitting in a corner using a large stick to draw detailed pictures of him and a Northstar in the rock garden when a conversation between Rifleman Jane and Borris referenced a girl with silver eyes.

The information Piqued VT's interest and he saw his opportunity to investigate as a patrolling Spector walked by where he was residing.

As one of the bots got close enough, VT took his hand out and lightly put the tip of his right-hand trigger finger on the specture, causing the bot stop while the other kept going and the light blue light on its face faded to a dark blue similar to VT's data core.

VT pulled his hand back as the hacked patrol bot looked at its new superior. VT nodded to his pawn and saluted it with the Specture reciprocating the formalities and continued its usual route until it took a sharp turn into the facility with none the wiser as the Sixth fleet dominated the skies above.

Juane now knew what it felt like to be Profesor Port

The SRS now teacher was currently rambling on about some old stories, some completely made up. "And that kids, is why you always shoot first. Also-"

A boy with stark white hair raised his hand

"Yes, you! Snow King"

The student became flustered and opened his mouth to say something but quickly composed himself

"While I do understand you're an experienced pilot I just have to ask, what were we supposed to learn from that?

The pilot tried to come up with an answer "um, you, eh" one came to mind from the exaggeration he told "don't trust the Banditos"

The point didn't appease the curiosity of the people in the class another one raised a hand

"How did you become a pilot?"

The door opened and the pilot turned his head to see a young woman dressed in a grey uniform and had black hair.

"Sorry I'm late I got caught talking to my tactics professor

The unexpected surprise of who the woman looked like caused his aura to flare for a split second causing the Grizzly device to spark. Before the pilot could comprehend who was in front of him the voice on his head brought to attention a pressing issue

"Warning gravitational anomaly, the watch is short-circuiting" the pilot whispered into his helmet "in English please"

Which VT quickly replied "if you don't take off the glove you will end up like Anderson"

The glove started to spark again. Juane turned to the class as he started to leave

"Uh, sorry to cut it short but I gotta go" rushing past the woman into the hall trying to take off the glove

"c'mon, C'mon, C'mon" he pleaded but he was not fast enough as the pilot put an over his face as he was engulfed in the energies charged up by the glove.

As the pilot lifted the arm off his face the pilot found out was still in the same spot as he was previously.

"VT, you there"

The pilot looked around seeing he was in the same spot and place except for the world around him was darker and in blue scale.

"I am still here with you pilot, it appears that when the watch overloaded it shifted you into another dimension"

the pilot pondered for a moment

"Can you identify the source of the gravitational anomaly?" the pilot asked inquisitively as he started to walk down the halls like the multitude of times before.

"I identified the source of the gravitational anomaly but the information I got was…., odd"

The pilot continued to investigate the area around him and saw a large claw mark on the wall that caught his eye.

"Odd how?" the pilot continued on and saw more claw marks and bullet holes along with scorch marks.

"My sensors indicated that the source of the anomaly was coming from you pilot…" confusion was obviously present in the monotone voice

The pilot sighed putting two and two together

"Dam aura flared when I saw that woman who looked exactly like her…" frustrated Juane decided to deal with that later

"Well anyway, how are we getting out of this one VT" the pilot saw a door that wasn't present before when he passed through the halls before that glowed with a heavenly ominous white light.

"Yes, I would just have to recalibrate the Grizzly device but it might take some time" the pilot looked out a window seeing birds frozen in place

"Don't worry, we got all the time in the world"

After that remark, he heard footsteps running down the hall revealing a lone IMC grunt. As the grunt got closer, the pilot could see the blood stains on his uniform and how tightly he was holding his rifle.

The grunt finally saw the pilot

"Oh thank god, a pilot! there's a chance I might make it out of here after all!" the grunt relaxed a little as he approached the pilot.

"Woah didn't expect to see anyone else here! Being caught off guard by the troopers' presence, the pilot took this as the time to get some information.

"Well, you mind telling me what the hell happened here?"

The Grunt obliged "well I don't know what happened but I do remember there was this big explosion of energy and—"

The grunt was cut off as he was stabbed through the back by claws from an unknown source and lifted off the ground. In a panic, the grunt fired his rifle wildly behind him hitting the beast a couple of times eliciting an inhuman screech before being thrown away like an old toy.

In a state of shock, the pilot was now standing in front of the beast which was observing its new prey. The pilot, only able to see an outline of the beast through his helmet, started to back away keeping his hand close to his holstered wingman.

"VT, how long till you're done!" he loudly whispered.

"30 seconds pilot" The AI responded

The beast made its move, lashing out with one of its claws. The pilot ducked and wall ran around the creature firing the wingman center mass, the high caliber rounds obviously doing damage but was too dark to see.

"twenty seconds" VT called out

The creature let out a squeal as it through another appendage hitting the pilot and throwing him away onto the ground.

"Ten seconds"

The pilot looked up to see the corpse of the unfortunate grunt eyes blank with fear and not holding his rifle instead there were firestars in his hand.

The beast found the pilot and quickly running to assault its pray and was already nearly upon him.

"Five seconds"

The pilot reacted throwing the firestars at the beast, the thermite melting the creature as well as illuminating it for all to see. The sight chilled the pilot to the very bone.

"Calculations Complete"

The pilot closed the palm of his glove and was now sitting in the same spot he once was back in the present day.

The pilot stood up and dusted himself off and took a couple deep breaths and looked to where the grunt was.

"VT, did you take note of where the location of that door was?"

"Of Course Pilot"

Juane looked away and started to walk in the direction of where the door was wondering what the IMC was doing here.

* * *

As the sun started to slip underneath the horizon, nearly all of the big pieces of gear were transported to the fleet orbiting above.

The night became filled with the sounds of the many troops that had to wait till tomorrow to get a transport off the planet.

The many that found themselves stuck at the compound for an extra night took to doing one of the most famous ancestral traditions after a successful mission, partying, especially when someone found a whole stash of Malt liquor and rum.

The building by the cliff was nearly filled to the brim with the reconquers. Hootin and partying as their lives depended on it. Jane currently stood at the edge of the party near one of her squad mates

"Ja— *Burp –ane, why da ya thank that pylwet" the squadmate leaned on janes shoulder she let out another breathy belch fueled by alcohol and lifted the bottle with her outside hand shoulder height

"Choices you! Cause I aways wantsded to be a pylwet but nooooooooooo!"

Jane let out a chuckle

"Wow Tie sounds like you've had too much to drink, smell it too"

The squadmate slowly collapsed to the ground lying face first on the ground

"FFORA DA FRONTIER!" Tie exclaimed before passing out

Jane let out a sigh and proceeded to pick up Tie "Cmon dude, let's get you some Cleanser"

The rifleman carried Tie outside of the party to a grassy area that overlooked the cliff

Where she laid the squadmate on her side and stuck a syringe in Ties arm.

"There, should be alright in the next ten to thirty minutes or so"

After making sure Tie won't drown in his own puke she saw flash of white light that obscured her vision and went to sit on the edge of the cliff where she sat next to a woman with a black outfit, a pilot helmet and a white cape that had a red rose on the hood and seemed to split apart and fade into blue pixels at the back edges.

As Jane sat down at the spot overlooking the view the figure quickly noticed

"Oh, Hey Jane what are you doing here?" Jane suddenly looked at the figure shock clear on her face

"Blumey? Is that really you?

"Oh right, I forgot" Blumeys helmet opened up revealing her smiling face "yea, it's me"

Jane had a hard time believing who she was seeing

"Wow, what happened to you?"

"Well I finally graduated"

Jane looked at Blumey confused

"You… graduated"

"Of course! I've been training here to be a pilot and commander" Blumey looked out into the sunset.

"Overall I would have never thought this is where I'll end up" Blume sighed "but at least I'll still be able to help people"

Jane bit her lip

"Yea…." And looked at the sunset "helping people…"

Blumey continued to look at the view

"I'm not blind to how the IMC usually does things in the frontier" she turned her head to look at Jane "But I have hope I can change that"

"HA! Change the IMC, yea right" Jane let out a loud laugh until she looked over to see Blumeys face "Oh…, your series"

Blume smirked "I know the road in front of me is long" she looked at Jane dead in the eyes.

"I also know you're Militia"

Jane Deflated

"Ha, yea, you're funny Blumey" Janes shakily said

"Having the connections I have now has allowed me privy to some… information"

Jane started to back away

"WaitWaitwait hear me out," Blumey said waving her hands in front of her

"Even though you've been here for like 3 month you've helped me so much during my time here in ways I can't even begin to describe, I-I don't know how to show you how I feel…" the Commander put a hand to her chin

"Hmm, oh!" she reached for an object on her belt and whispered into it before handing off to Jane along with a wristband.

"Here, Take this"

Jane fumbled with the objected, looking closely at the grey ball with white light leaking through some of the cracks, before looking back at Blumey

"A friend of mine made it for me but it think it's something I think you're going to need more than I do"

"Wow, what does this do?"

The white pilot chuckled

"That's something for you to find out later, just make sure to wear that bracelet when you first turn him on" Blume helped Jane put it

"Him?" Jane questioned

"ISAIDYOU'LLFINDOUTLATER" Blumey Quickly spat out.

"Alright, Alright, I will." Jane paused "So then, what's next for the great commander Blumey?" the grunt asked sarcastically

Blume checked her surroundings quickly before she answered

"Well, I already got my first mission"

The Trainee went wide-eyed

"THERE ALREADY SENDING YOU OUT! YOU JUST BLOODY GRADUATED"

The Commander let out a laugh

"I know but this isn't the usual mission, this one's a bit more…., personal"

"Personal?"

"The mission is to absorb a secluded system into the fold" Blume paused

"The reason it's personal is that its-"

A large distortion appeared revealing a pilot catching both of the girls off gaurd as well as causing Blumy's helmet to close

"JANE!" the SRS pilot yelled

"wh-wha, Captain Arc?"

He took off a Grizzly device off of his hand

"Put this on, NOW!" Jaune frantically told the grunt,

Jane fumbled the glove in her hands

"Dammit Jane Hurry!" he kept checking his watch

"Ok Ok, what's going on Captain?"

The pilot continued to check his watch frequently

"After you activate the glove VT will get you, he'll explain everything"

The trainee looked at Juane confused

"Activate the glove, How?" she closed her fists when approaching her mentor and returned to the present.

Juane let out a sigh and went to go sit down on the cliff

Blume recovered from the event and realized who was next to her

"Oh you must be Janes Mentor" she attempted in a cheery tone.

Silence

"I've read up about you, you're John Barc Famous Militia hero and what not"

The pilot thought about his next words before he turned his head to look at Blumey

"Um yep the one and only John Barc name rolls of the tongue nicely, ladies love it and you must be?"

Juane put his hand up to shake hands which she childishly accepted

"Blumey, Blumey Rot, New commander for the IMC"

"Well it's always nice to meet the competition"

Both pilots laughed

"Well to be honest the thing that most interests me most about you is that logo you wear"

The SRS pilot became confused

"My…., logo"

"Yea it's the same one a friend of mine wore," the rose pilot looked into nothing before shaking it off "but that was a lifetime ago"

The context clues suddenly came together in Juanes head and he looked down at his watch and sighed

"To be honest to, there is so much I want to, need to tell you….," The SRS pilots watch let out an alarm "but that will have to wait for next time we meet"

After that statement, Juane turned to the view to see birds frozen in the sky and the world around him suddenly lost light and shaded in blue scale.

Juane stood up

"However long that will be"

* * *

Authors Notes:

 **Snowballs FF:** I appreciate the feedback I made sure to put more time into the grammar and organization.

 **Ol' Maddox:** Thanks for the support I hope you enjoy this chapter!

 **jakegag99:** Thank you for the advice I will definitely make sure to look into it.

 _I hope you guys enjoy the story so far. Any constructive criticism and advice is always welcomed._


	3. Chapter 3

**Important Authors Note:** **I would like to thank Ventusblade for his help with this chapter.**

 **Now without further ado**

Chapter 3:

Still a Student

* * *

The leading SRS pilot walked to where he spotted the anomaly trying to comprehend recent events as he approached the spot. Though the arrival of the six fleet has relieved him of a major responsibility, his mind started to wander about a certain person he saw.

(' _Could it really be her, after all this time')_ he pondered, approaching the spot. The pilot walks up putting his hand on it.

"This the spot?" he questioned his partner.

"Based on the video feed from the encounter, this seems to be the location of the anomaly, highlighting on your hud"

A diagram of a door appeared on the wall on the pilot's hud. The pilot backed away deep in thought

"Do the scans have anything?"

"No, scans reveal nothing beyond this wall"

The pilot walked up to the wall fist ready "C'mon there has to be something…" anger seeping in his voice the pilot punched the wall leaving an indent "three" punch "Months" punch "with nothing" punch "and we're still at" Juane reeled his fist farther back "SQUARE ONE!" the pilot threw a punch, glowing light around his fist, penetrating through the metal wall into the hollow area behind it. The pilot froze, eyes wide behind the helmet. The pilot looked both ways in the hallway. Seeing nobody he pulled his fist out of the wall backing away quickly.

"Uhh VT, I found something" the pilot reported

"I see, if you put your hand into the hole you made I can loosely scan the area for more information"

The pilot silently walked up to the hole and stuck his left hand in the hole he made. A dim blue light emanated in the dark space as the pilot kept his hand open in the space.

In the corner of the pilots hud the status of the scan.

'Scan complete'

'Connecting'

"Connecting?" the pilot inquired

The wall the pilot had his arm in went back with a hiss and moved to the left. The pilot pulled his arm out of the moving door and started surveying the revealed entrance with a large room behind it and a button.

"Pilot my scans indicate that this elevator goes directly down to the depth where the objective is located"

The pilot started to walk in pressing a button "Umm ok just give me a warning next time you do that VT"

The elevator silently descended into the unknown.

"Noted, I thought you wanted me to take more initiative" the AI remarked to its partner

The pilot chuckled a little bit "I do but that doesn't mean that you should uphold the mission without me knowing about it"

"Yes, but if I am allowed to be more autonomous it could increase our efficiency by twenty percent as well as-"

"Don't forget about that time on Geneva" the pilot remarked.

The elevator stopped and opened to reveal a considerably big room with two heavy doors to the left and right of the elevator and a security office parallel to the elevator entrance.

"Indeed.." the titan begrudgingly remarked.

Juane looked to his left and saw that the door was closed tightly sealed, he looked to his right to see the other door open.

"Huh, guess my choice has already been made"

He started to the door when he noticed a decapitated spectre on the ground by the open door holding an unfamiliar weapon.

"Now what do we got here?" he questioned as he reached down to pick up what appeared to be a volt

The intrigued pilot surveyed the weapon noticing its size, which appeared to be in between the size of a normal volt and an L-Star. The pilot couldn't help but notice the red lines of red that lined both sides of the gun from the barrel to the clip.

"Can't wait to see what you can do" he commented as he holstered the weapon on his back.

Upon crossing the threshold of the door he saw the true state of the complex he was looking for as sparks came from broken overhead lights and scorch marks a noticeable sight, continuing as far as he can go coming upon a locked door open, letting out a sigh as he looked down at his hand which still wielded the Grizzly device.

"Is the glove recalibrated" he lifted his hand to his face and further observed the glove.

"Yes, I have made sure to include calibrations for the gravitational anomaly as well, all systems nominal"

Juane looked at the glove in distrust.

"Alright, here goes nothing"

With that statement, he activated the glove transferring back to the past.

The ruined and crushed lab that the pilot used to be standing in was replaced with a sterile white and gray lab with the door in front of him now clear of debri.

Juane continued with caution using the Grizzly device scarcely, avoiding patrols along with ruble. When he came upon a ruined observation room that had rubble blocking the way forward with a thick table in the middle and had a blast shield covering the observation glass but allowed white light from the other side to enter the room.

"Pilot, I am detecting large Arc signatures just behind that wall" VT informed.

Jumping to the past the pilot approached the door to continue and started to open prematurely catching the pilot off guard. The blonde pilot quickly jumped up onto a high part of the wall using an ice pike to keep himself by the vents as well as putting his shield in front of himself in hopes it would help him blend in.

The pilot heard two sets of footsteps walk into the room one sounding human the other metallic. Juane peeked over the shield to his dismay. One of the two who walked in was one of the most notable people in the IMC, the other appearing to be a robot of some kind which appeared to be a spectre but was painted white and had a larger eye piece.

Both figures stood on opposite sides of the table before the man held the bridge of his nose with and sighed out.

"What does the board want now…" his tone annoyed

The robot straitened "General Mauder the board wishes to let you know that they appreciate your hard work in the frontier"

The General put his hands on the table "They better especially with the amount of resources that we spent" the general looked over to the glass.

"That reminds me, what is the status on our supposedly leaked prototype?"

"Reports from our pilots, mercenaries and sources in the militia have concluded that the monarch has become quite favorable due to its many abilities and survivability" the robot reported in a chirpy tone.

The pilot continued to listen in.

"Good, that will be great news for our R and D, anything else to add?"

The spectre paused for a moment before letting out its message

"Nothing else but the next topic we must discuss is related to...her-"

Mauder's form stiffened slightly by the reference "What about her?" managed anger and something else seeping in his voice.

"I understand that sir but the board says it is not satisfied with the time it is taking to get the results they wanted"

The general paused before pushing off the table and started to walk back to the door and back "While I respect the board they only think two steps in front of them!" Mauder continued to rant "She is the next stage in human evolution and they only see her as numbers and a petri dish, they do not see the potential"

The machine looked at its leader with a calculated stare.

"While I understand your hypotheses, I have noticed you have been spending much of your time with her, are you starting to be 'connected' with the 'subject'" the robot accused.

"That is none of your concern" The white haired veteran spoke out.

The robot pushed on "I understand but I, along with the board, wish to know what you plan on doing with the girl?"

"Her abilities will be invaluable for our future research but she is more than that, her skills in leadership and vision are valuable assets that the IMC can utilize moving forward"

The robot tilted its head "Does this mean that…."

"No, I have not made my decision yet, though time is starting to wear thin, there is still research that needs to be completed, but when the time comes she will be the one"

"What about the other candidates, there are battle tested commanders that have made a great deal of progress for the IMC" the machine reasoned.

"They are worthy applicants for the position but they lack something crucial for the job of not just being the head of combat forces but also as a researcher…."

"I have the full list of the skills needed for this position but you seem to have empathy towards the subject in question" the machines inquiry surprised the man "It is widely studied that humans can't help but take care of something and to create a connection, it seems this may be compromising your ability to not just pick a suitable candidate but your decision making as well"

The general grew increasingly frustrated at the remark.

"The relationship I have with her does not compromise my role in this company"

Mauder took a deep breath.

"Now if you excuse me I have a meeting to attend to…. But Before I make leave what's the status on the other subject, hopefully the militia have not wasted such potential"

"The subject is doing well general, he has reported to be serving in the marauder core"

The man scoffed "Typical, at least not completely wasted and before I forget make sure to uphold the Namensänderung protocols, we cannot let her know of her other" the white haired man ordered as he started to head out of the room.

"Of course sir, what should I tell the board then?" the machine got out before Mauder can leave

"Tell them that we ran into some…, unforeseen variables but she is embracing her new identity and is integrating quite well, our R and D just needs just a little bit more time and that preparations for the expedition are going as scheduled" with that statement the general put up on an emotionless face before leaving the room. The bot following him out.

The pilot paused before he made his move hopping down, scanning his surroundings

"VT, did you record that?

The pilot started to head out the door opposite of where he came in

"Yes, it is standard practice to record all moments in a mission for future reference " his partner responded.

"A simple yes would have been fine"

"Yes"

"Not what I meant"

Juane continued further following the usual routine avoiding more patrols and debris until he came upon a door with light seeping out of the cracks.

"Juane I am detecting major arc signatures behind that door it is interfering with my scanners"

"This must be the spot"

He approached the door.

"Looks like you have to shift in order to secure it" VT recommended

"That's what I'm afraid of doing" he sighed "Just a couple more times…" and with that he shifted to the past and walked through the pristine door.

Entering the room he quickly checked the room, seeing a small office space in the corner covered in a mess of drawings and calculations along with mannequins in the corner, catching the pilot's eye was the prize.

A white ball that sat neat and tidy in the center of the room, suspended by a machine that had three tesla coil antennas pointing at it at an angle.

The pilot, not thinking fourth dimensionally, took the moment to approach his objective nearly reaching it when the door he entered through started to open. Upon that he quickly hid behind the machine hosting the Arc.

Peeking behind the structure he saw a box being floated in on a platform being pushed by a marvin, following that was a man in a large and bulky protective suit.

The pair kept towered the front of the room, stopping at a table that had an assortment parts and tools with the most notable object being a grey ball.

The man now approached the crate.

"Open the Capsule my assistant" the figure said in a distorted voice.

The Marvin obeyed, opening the box to which the man quickly grabbed the contents of using beaker tongs. Pulling the object out of the box Juane could see a ball similar to the Ark but dimmer, what also nagged at Juane was the feeling of his very aura being pulled towards the strange object.

VT acted based on past experiences.

"External gravity source detected shutting down Grizzly Device" VT whispered into Juane's helmet

The Man in the bulky suit made sure the object in his hand is secure before putting his attention to the table where he picked up a grey ball with his open hand, opening it along with putting it on the floor.

The man proceeded to slowly place the orb into the grey ball, which appeared to stay coincident with the sphere. Upon completing the task the man quickly closed the grey device and quickly backed away "Quick! Get behind something in case it explodes like last time!" the duo quickly headed to the table from earlier and flipping it over, hastily moving behind it.

After about thirty seconds the man peeked his head over the table looking at the grey ball before going over to it and picking it up with the bulky hand.

"HA HA! Success!" happiness apparent in the man's voice he ran over to his robotic assistant hugging him tightly which the robot did not reciprocate.

The man let go letting out a couple of deep breaths "Now, just one more piece" he slowly approached the Marvin and pulled a chip out of the back of the head, causing the now soulless form to collapse. With the chip in hand, the man now inserted it into the device.

"Now to test it out" he started to head over to the part of the lab where the mannequins lay when a watch let out a notification.

The man looked down perplexed with his eyes went wide under his helmet and finders quickly taped a button, the doors close. The lighting in the room dimmed to red with the contraption in the center of the room activating.

A white energy enveloped the pilot lifting him up by his very soul

The pilot let out a wail which was only heard by the one man in the room who was in full control as he approached the intruder with giddy steps.

"Today's going better than I thought, first my project going well and now discovering that there are fourth-dimensional creatures!"

The man in the suit made his way towered his captured prey approaching it slowly but losing anticipation as the man realized what he had caught,

"Well by my sorry ass it's a pilot" the figure put his hands to his head and twisted off the helmet with a hiss to reveal an old man whose dark skin contrasted greatly from his stark white hair along with light green analytical eyes that viewed a whole pilot like a puzzle.

The old man let out a chuckle "And not just any pilot to, SRS"

The time tested engineer pulled up a chair.

"Well what in the world are you doing here my good man?"

The pilot let out a grunt unable to move.

"Oh right it might be easier to speak when your whole body is suspended by its molecules, my bad"

The man pushed some buttons on his wrist and brought the pilot to the ground, the energy that enveloped him dissipating from his body except his arms.

"Now, what in the sweet baby Jesus are you doing here?" he questioned like an old friend

The pilot stayed silent letting out deep breaths

"Not talking huh well I can guess you're here for the Arc, well you ain't getting it!" the engineer ranted his tone quickly changing "You militia terrorists think you guys can just take and destroy as you please but I'm doing work that will improve people's wellbeing unlike anything in history and people like you won't get in the way off it!"

The man started to walk towards the desk.

"You're wrong…" the pilot Weakley let out between breaths "you got it all wrong…"

The man came back "How am I wrong you guys cause unneeded deaths on multiple planets and caused one to be uninhabitable for generations!"

Juane wheezed.

"What kind of rock have you been living under?" the pilot continued on "The IMC has done way worse than just kill people, they experiment on not just people, whole communities as well and it has only gotten worse with the discovery of those Arcs!"

The scientist looked disgusted at the pilot up and down "Why should I believe you the IMC has done well for me so far and will not abuse their power!" he angrily yelled at the pilot "and…" the voice trailed off when he noticed the device on his wrist keeping eye contact with it until the pilot had enough

"And what! What else has the Prestigious IMC done to make your life better?"

The gravitational engineer continued to silently contemplate "Why are you here?"

The pilot craned his head "Excuse me?"

"Why are you really here? More importantly where did you get that glove?"

The pilot smirked

"Wouldn't you like to know"

"Answer me now or I'll crush you like a grape!" composure being lost by the engineer.

Juane considered his options.

"We built it, don't know how but I do know it's a neat thing we developed to help clean up yalls messes"

The engineer paced a little bit in front of the pilot before facing the Juane again "How many of these Arcs have you secured so far?"

The pilot stared at the man for a little before answering the question

"I've personally secured about 5 different Arcs, all from IMC experiments gone wrong"

The scientist put a hand to his chin in thought as he turned away from the pilot in thought and contemplation for a time before turning back to face the pilot

"Let's say I believe you…."

The pilot paused before giving his answer

"This some kind of mind game"

"No…, but let's say I want to go into a line of work that's less…., business oriented"

The engineer's words flew over the pilot

"What do you mean new work your already in work an-" Juane's partner caught on and made sure to let the pilot know

"OH, uh yea… I can help you uh get into that kind of work"

"Good to hear just keep in mind that I need to finish some important business before I leave" the man pushed the tab on his wrist and the energy surrounding the pilot's arms dissipated as the machine in the center of the room became dormant.

The pilot stood up checking his arms and wrist before cautiously making his way to his apparent new ally, he put out his hand as he approached the engineer "To be completely honest this doesn't happen very often so let's exchange names"

The man reciprocate the gesture and with a grin on his face looking the pilot in the eyes through the helmet "I can understand, my name is Edward, Edward Grizzly"

* * *

Juane returned in the present back to the now soulless lab. He patted himself down "Still in one piece" The pilot looked around seeing the disabled spectres and Marvin's littering the room in the center of the room now with a large gray ball with cracks and pieces chipped off that reveal the white light inside. The pilot approached the ball slowly

"Pilot I recommend slowly opening the casing so to not harm or activate the objective" VT recommended

"I'll make sure to be careful these things are usually pretty safe once we use the thing"

The pilot went over to the container putting his hands on one of the large cracks "Here goes nothing" the pilot pulled letting out a grunt a dim flash of light surrounding the pilot causing the container to give way to reveal the source of the light inside.

The pilot's hud lit up with dials and symbols as he looked over the object inside

"Arc identified and secured initiating protocol bring home the bacon"

Juane let out a chuckle "Glad to see you're finally using the phrasing we talked about"

"Indeed having common phrasing will help to increase our combat effectiveness"

The pilot backup and put his hands on his sides looking down with a sigh "You're missing the point not everything is about fighting"

"Conflict is the reason we are together. It is a priority that we have the highest combat effectiveness for our survival"

"Well VT from my experience there is more to this war and survival than just shoot and destroy but i'll explain it more when were done with this mission, NOW!" The pilot pulled out a box, with black lines tracing the side of the box to its center, from his belt "Activate the thing!"

"Activating Gravitamical Oxidizer" VT stated, the device started to glow as oxidized energies accumulated the pilot grunting as his grip on the device quickly becomes weaker.

"Charging sequence at 25 Percent"

Pushing through fatigue the pilot started to make his way over focusing solely on the objective.

"Charging sequence at 55 Percent, are you alright pilot? The Oxidizer seems to be affecting the onboard systems and appears you are in distress"

Juane gritted his teeth "Yes, just like all the other times we've done this I'm fine, just a little closer and-" a pair of metallic hands grabbed the back of the pilots uniform with a metallic cling.

"Oh sh-" Juane was thrown back leaving an indent in the wall along with a faint glow surrounding him as he crumpled to the floor. The pilot lazily looked up "Huh—" The metallic form walked up to the pilot before grabbing and lifting him up. The pilot was able to see the attacker, the spectre from earlier.

VT checked in "Pilot you alright? I have lost the signal to your helmet camera"

The pilot grunted as he attempted to get away from the assailant

"int-t-ruder identified" The camera on the robots face lit spastically as it spoke

The robot threw the pilot back hitting the machine that housed the Ark. The robot started to walk over with calculated steps; only stopping when coming upon the glowing box the pilot dropped. The machine looked down analyzing it the box started to vibrate and glow brighter as the stored energies went critical. The energies were released from the box encompassed the entire room, the robot craned its head with the light in the robots eye going dark as it keeled over.

The pilot peeked over his shield that he was scrunched behind. He groggily stood up looking around, taking in the events that have transpired before he put a hand to his head.

"VT…, you uh, still there"

"Yes, are you alright Juane, I am trying to reconnect to your helmets onboard camera, do you require any assistance?"

"No…, I'm… fine, I just got…, surprised that's all but"

Juane walked over and picked up the oxidizer, he looked it over seeing the many safeguards tripped

"We are going to need a new Oxidizer so send someone down here to-" The pilot looked behind him seeing the white orb now spinning rapidly as it collected energies. The pilot immediately started backing away shield in front

"Pilot, I'm detecting a sudden increase in Arc energies near your location, what is happening?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to find out" Juane readied the Grizzly device

"VT I'm heading out the same way I came in, give me indicators"

"Understood setting markers, the energy seems to be increasing at a constant rate I predict it will reach critical in 23 minutes marking on your hud"

Juane looked back at his mistake before looking to the door he came through. "Also make sure to let out the order for everyone to evacuate and to meet at point Chuck"

"Of course, relaying"

With a little prep, the pilot was off, running and jumping past ruble and people alike, as the elevator reached the top Juane read 15 minutes as he walked out.

"Hope I'm the last one out of this place"

* * *

One traditionalist sergeant took a look at the many other soldiers and squads. He looked back from the tree line at the compound, seeing the supposed important building empty once again say for a few emplacements and turrets. He sighed putting his hat on as he started, walking back to his responsibilities. Approaching his squad in an illuminated area he can see many had their rifles along with a bottle still in their hand.

"Alright you party poopers, head count!" the sergeant pulled the duffle bag off his back pulling out syringes "Borris!" he yelled

"Here Sarge…" an intoxicated grunt yelled out.

The Sergeant tossed his second in command a syringe which he injected into his thigh. The sergeant moved on calling out everyone's names on Red squad as he handed out Refreshes.

Tai Chang,

Lester Peterson,

Lian Tsunagatta,

John Williams,

Dillan Wong,

Pablo Suerte,

Simon pěkný,

Giles Bates,

Finishing the list with "Jane!" he looked over his squad syringe in hand "Jane, where are you!" the squad looked around to no avail.

A light bulb lit in Serge's head, he reached for his belt "Oh yea..." he pulled a data pad from his belt "I can find her location here and…"

"Wait, you can track our location, that's a little bit creepy" Giles said sarcastically

"Shut your pie hole, I only use it for business and if your being idiots" The pad loaded showing Jane's last location

"Shit!" the sergeant looked back at the empty compound then back to the data pad "Ah fuck" he started to quickly back away grabbing his rifle.

* * *

Juane stood in the compound's courtyard facing his robotic partner, helmet open revealing his face.

"What do ya mean she's not there?" Juane questioned VT in a panicked tone.

"Rifleman Schluechez cannot be found nor identified at point Chuck" the Titan explained.

The pilot paced back and forth before a light bulb "Ok, how about simply calling her or something. Maybe she will respond"

The titan silently did as ordered before briefing his partner "No response, Juane I conclude Jane might be caught in a random time jump"

The pilot craned his head "You're not serious?"

"I overheard a conversation between rifleman Jane and rifleman Boris where she described talking to people that are not a part of the mission since we got here" he explained

The pilot face palmed and sighed "why does everything have to fall apart at the end..." Juane refocused when his eyes peaked at the timer again.

12:00 minuets

The pilot started to walk around the courtyard in a hurried pace.

'Ok ok, think, time traveling, how do I find the time traveler with only knowing where they last were?" the pilot stopped as he saw a security camera. He turned to face his partner.

"VT we can use the cameras to find the exact date and time of where Jane is at. Do you know where the control room is?"

"Yes the Security center is over there" VT pointed to an entrance to one of the buildings" a mark appeared on the spot on his hud.

The blond pilot ran quickly approaching the building.

A specture opened the door waving him in "I opened all of the doors Pilot" a familiar monotone voice called out.

The pilot slowed his pace quickly eyeballing the hacked robot as he passed by.

"Where can we access the camera footage VT?"

The robot led him through the building "The main terminal is this way. I have found a lot of important information but I have experienced a problem"

The pilot and Hacked Bot entered the room, large screens covered the walls with a couple desk in the middle of the room with a computer and keyboard. Juane sat down in one of the desks with an active screen, looking around the screen with. "What is the problem?"

"I have been analyzing the images on the files and have found little to no trace of Jane except for one video with evidence of mass purge"

"Purged? The IMC doesn't usually get rid of information of any kind..." the pilot of handedly remarked furiously scanning over the files "It doesn't matter now, we don't have much time! Just show me what you've found"

The Bot walked up to the computer the pilot was at and pulled up the video. "This is the only file I was able the find but this video was taken at a location close to Janes last known location"

The SRS Pilot looked at the screen where he saw the Pilot in training and someone else sitting on the edge of the compound on a space of grass. Juane immediately got out of the chair "Make sure to get the time information on that video to calibrate the glove and follow me" he commanded his partner as he started making his way towards Jane.

* * *

"Serge, what's wrong?" Boris questioned

"Janes still in there!" the traditionalist started walking quickly.

Shock and confusion showed on the faces of everyone present in the squad.

"The hell I thought she was with you Tai?" Simon questioned as Red squad followed the commander.

Tai quickly followed close behind along with the rest of the squad "I d-don't remember, all I can recall is passing out at the party and waking up with the evac sirens and a refresh syringe in my arm"

They walked passed many other squads and grunts in a hurry, garnering looks from other complete squads and titan pilot pairs.

"Crap she must have time jumped" Boris muttered

"What are you talking about Boris? Tai questioned

"Nothing, but it means we must hurry..."

Red squad followed their sergeant coming upon a parked convoy of flatbed trucks. The serge got into the one with an anti-titan cannon on top, rolling down the window as he turned on the vehicle. "You guys coming or what" he yelled out to his squad.

The squad eyeballed each other before they got into two other trucks, the ones not able to fit inside the trucks sat in the beds, on top of hastily stored turrets and arc traps, rifles in hand.

The sergeant honked the horn catching the attention of his squad, leaning out of the window and pointed to his head. His voice came on the com in each of the soldiers helmets "No one left behind…, we don't leave till we find Jane. Anyone who doesn't want to go is free to get off, I'm not ordering any of you go"

There was a pause, nobody moved from their spots. One person made a move off the truck everyone's eyes locked on Lian.

"Sorry guys, I made a promise" Lain glumly said and started walking back into the camp.

The squad watched with conflicted expressions as she made her way out of view the sergeants voice came back on the coms "For those who made their decision to stay... Thank you" Serge floored the pedal hastily driving out of the camp along with the rest of the squad close behind.

The trio of trucks tore through the distance to the complex stopping at the center yard. The squad quickly got out of the vehicles hastily the sergeant started to run towed the far end of the complex "Spread out we have to act fast!"

Red Squad hastily spread out into the area in search, going into nearby buildings.

Running straight towards Jane's last known location the sergeant stopped in his tracks seeing the vanguard titan quickly heading in his direction.

Before the serge could properly react the titan was already upon them, stepping past them hurrying out of the complex. One of the grunts watched as the titan exited the facility in a hurry.

"Where the hell is he going?" the grunt waved his hands over his head "Don't you guys know the phrase leave no man behind!"

"Forget about him we still have to find Jane!" The serge let out quickly.

Red squad looked all around for their missing rifleman calling out her name along with a couple of the squad trying to use other approaches.

The time that displayed in everyone's helmet hud reached 0:00.

Boris's face became defeated "Ah hell"

Soon a wave of went through them; the setting around the squad soon faded in blue scale.

* * *

 **I put in a lot of elements in this chapter and take step from the usual plot format, hopefully it's not too much at once. I can't wait to develop these characters further I hope I created a good foundation so far.**

 **What is also helpful is the sudden release of Apex legends I've had a good time playing that game and more importantly gave a good amount of world building and tools that I can use like tanks along with other important information that would be great for the frontier portion of this story.**

 **Please let me know what you guys think and suggestions for upcoming chapters, constructive criticism is always welcomed.**


	4. Chapter 4

Ch 4 the Unexpected

* * *

The inside of the Vanguard Titans' cockpit was lit with a red light helping the one occupant who banged on the inside to vaguely see.

"Dammit VT open up! Where are you taking me?" Jane pleaded with the war machine.

" _I am to escort you back to site Chuck and await further communication as ordered by Captain Arc,"_ the Vanguard Titan replied.

Jane slumped back in the seat "Await further communication my aaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—" Jane was suddenly thrown about the cockpit as VT was hit by a shockwave.

She opened her eyes to see the whole cockpit upside down as she laid on the main door in the capsule. Before she gained her orientation in the cockpit, the area started to shift. She grabbed one of the safety grips, keeping herself from hitting her head on the controls.

"Ok VT, WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?" She sat back into the pilots seat waiting for a reply from the machine. Without getting any reply from the machine, she only felt the cockpit turn around as VT continued on its route.

"Dammit VT what's going on over there? Why was Captain Arc so worried?" She looked up at the blank interface only to get blackness staring her back and silence ringing in her ear.

 _If only I had one of those pilot helmets, then he'd have to answer,_ she thought. The lone human was stuck with only her thoughts, as she sat in the glumly walking Titan, before the war machine abruptly stopped. The main hatch was opened before she was pulled her out and she was set on a stump. Jane kicked and cussed before finally accepting her fate.

"Alright VT, can you just please just tell me what the hell is going on?"

The Titan sat down in front of Jane ,leaning on one of the thicker trees. Only glares were exchanged as VT looked at Jane.

" _Awaiting communication from Tom,_ " VT simply said as he awaited the communication. The Rifleman got a notification on her hud saying she was receiving a video call from 'Tom the Bomb', she let out a small laugh.

"Finally some answers," she said as she pulled out a tablet and answered the call. Jane saw that a the feed was from a desktop camera and that Tom was resting his elbows on the table with his head in his hands as he looked up from his hands to see he was connected.

" _Oh, uhhh..._ " Tom stuttered out. " _Hey Jane I uhhh... know you have a lot of questions but to be short, VT let me know that your mentor, more importantly my friend, has most likely met his utter demise._ "

Jane felt a sinking feeling in her chest, "What…."

" _From what VT has sent me, I see that he sacrificed himself to save you because you were stuck in an uncontrollable time jump and something happened to where it could have trapped you in another dimension._ " Jane felt a deeper sinking feeling in her chest and water welling behind her eyes, but held back. " _Though John may be stuck or MIA… I know it's going to be hard for both of us so we have to support each other._ "

Jane just looked at the tablet while she tried to keep herself together, "Oh god it's all my fault… why was I so careless?"

Jane started to collapse within herself which Tom immediately noticed. He quickly waved his hands in front of the camera to try and attempt at damage control, " _NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! It's not your fault._ "

"YES! It is!" Jane shouted back "I should have told Captain Arc about it! We wouldn't have been in this situation if it wasn't for me not trusting myself!"

Tom sighed, trying his best to look Jane in the eyes through the camera. " _Look… while I know a way to extract him, I don't think I will be able to get the resources in time. Especially with whatever is stuck there with him… I'll be able to tell you everything when you get back to the Phili_."

Jane looked back and composed herself, conflict in her eyes. "Ok…" she meekly let out.

The Technician slowly got into a relaxed position " _Oh and there's one other thing I'm calling you about. I made a promise to Jua-ooohhhnn,_ " Tom stopped himself mid-sentence. " _Your mentor, is that I would complete your training. From this day forward, you are officially my assistant slash pilot trainee. Your Squad will be under my command, so don't worry about nothing._ "

Jane looked at the tablet, dumbfounded at the speed that everything was unfolding. "Wow…" she wiped a loose tear. "I, um... didn't expect to be talking about this now, but when do I start?" She smirked on her face, despite it still being a little bit tear stained. She at least wanted to try and sound like her normal self.

" _Well as soon as you get back to the ship. I have some stuff to show you nut now i have to start making some Sims! So if you need anything before you get back to the ship, let me know so talk to you later!_ " The screen went black with white text saying 'Call Ended'.

She put the tablet away and stuffed her hands to her face, "Uggggggghhh." She ignored the commotion of moving equipment. ' _What am I going to do, what am I going to tell my Squad_?' she yelled internally she looked up to see a familiar face.

"Jane?" A person called out peeping behind a tree.

"Lian!" The Pilot-in-Training got up excitedly for the distraction, "Ohmygosh! I am so glad to see you right now!" She ran up and hugged her squadmate, tears in her eyes.

"I'm so glad to see you to Jane!" Lian said as she returned the embrace. "It's great to see you guys made it out ok." After a short time, the two squadmates let go of each other. "Well I'm glad everything worked out somewhat ok. Where's everyone else?" Jane quipped, hopping to see more of their team with her.

The words that left Janes mouth caused Lian to stiffen as the facade broke down and panic started to seep into her. "What do you mean 'Where's the Squad?' They were supposed to be with you!"

Confusion plastered on Janes face "What do _you_ mean that they were 'supposed to be with me?' VT was the one who 'escorted' me back," She gave a scowl as she pointed back to the Vanguard Titan.

Lian looked over at VT who gave a thumbs up in response. "Oh no…." Lian started to head out of the clearing "Oh no, no, no, no!" hands on top of her head as she left the scene.

"Wait!" Jane shouted out after her. "Li where are you going? What happened?" She followed her squadmate leaving the Titan behind. Jane followed closely behind Lian until she came upon place with direct line of site to the complex before leaning on one of the trees.

"Li, can you please tell me what's happening? I was stuck in a dark cockpit the whole time and I'm bloody tired of being in the dark in general. So, _please_ tell me where the hell is everybody else?"

Lian took another look before grabbing the bridge of her nose, eyes somber "They all went back to get you…"

Jane started to back away as the realization hit her "Oh no..."

* * *

Juane sat on the side of the cliff in regret.

"After all this time…" he looked up at the blue tinted landscape. "She was sitting there right in front of me."

A machination crept closer, quickly noticed by the voice inside the pilots' helmet, " _Juane I am-_ "

"Look VT, I..." He let out a sigh mixed with frustration and exhaustion. "...I need a moment here."

The thing grew closer.

" _Pilot I'm-_ "

"Hold on VT! Whatever is happening I'll deal with it later," frustration apparent in his voice. "I finally find her! I finally found her and she's been in IMC hands this whole time!" He closed his eyes and threw his arms back, laying flat on the surrounding blue scale grass of the alien planet.

He stayed like that for a quick moment before he opened his eyes, instinct screaming at him, to the sight of monstrosity leaning over him with amalgamated rows of human teeth ready to bite down on him. The pilot seeing this let out a loud 'manly' scream as the beast attacked, only for the it to be hit by a blue ball of energy from behind causing the beast to recoil in pain.

"Die! You ugly bastard!" Sarge called out in a gruff voice. Blue balls of energy and bullets continuously pelted the thing pushing it back and finally forcing it off the cliff. The pilot sat there watching his two saviors running up.

"Don't worry Jane! The cavalry's..." the duo saw the person they actually saved. "Here…"

"..." The Pilot composed himself and checked himself as he turned to face the self proclaimed rescue team.

A silence suffocated as both the Sergeant and the pilot stared at one another.

The Sergeant spoke first, "Where's Jane?" _Serious and to the point_

"She's safe. I had VT get her out just before we got stuck in this Oum forsaken place."

The Sergeant took a deep breath and turned around. Realizing the situation he took off his helmet and threw it on the ground. "GOD DAMN IT!" He yelled. The grunt that was next to him recoiled in surprise.

"What's wrong Sarge? At least we know that she's safe," Boris tried to reason with the enraged man.

The man turned to look daggers at his second in command, "I see that but now we're all are stuck here! Just like him!" The Sergeant pointed at the pilot. "An' it's all my fault you all are here 'cause I wasn't thinking straight!"

"Don't get down on yourself sir. It's not your fault," Boris said in an attempt to halt his leaders downward spiral.

"He's right," the Pilot interjected. But before the Sergeant could retorte, he started to walk forward towards the duo, which caught their attention. "It's all my fault were all in this situation. I should have been more upfront with you guys and everyone involved about the real reason we're here."

Boris looked at the pilot with some confusion on his face. "I'm quite surprised to be honest, most pilots I've met are too cocky to admit their mistakes."

Juane chuckled, "Well I don't see many Squadss who would go out of their way for one of their members, especially if it could mean certain death." Sarge cringed at the latter part of what the Pilot said.

"Well Pilot," the Sergeant chimed in. "Since you know how you got us into this situation, you better know how to get us out."

The blond pilot put a hand on his chin in thought, "Well about that-"

The sound of gunshots and a variety of other weapon discharges were heard from the courtyard immediately catching everyone's attention.

" _SARGE!_ " a voice crackled from the helmet on the ground. " _SARGE CAN YOU HEAR ME?_ " the owner of the helmet quickly picked it back up. " _WE'RE BEING ATTACKED BY THESE WERE FLESH CREATURES AND-_ " A large explosion came from the courtyard. " _THEY JUST STARTED COMING OUT OF NOWHERE!_ "

" _Jesus Christ! Don't let them touch you!_ " Came a voice in the background along with the sound of gunfire and screams of abominations.

Sarge put his helmet back on putting his finger on the earpiece. "Hold that position Simon! We're on our way!" He turned back to the Pilot and the grunt. "Whelp I guess that's the end of our formalities! Got any plans on how to get out of this mess Pilot?" The Sergeant asked as he loaded his large Anti-Titan cannon.

The pilot readied the unfamiliar rifle, to the Sergeant and the Grunt, from his back. "Don't know yet," Jaunes' helmet closed shut, "I usually wing it."

"First were going to save our friends, then we figure out how to get the hell out of here," Boris stated.

"HAH!" Sarge laughed "That's a plan I can get behind!"

All three quickly ran towards the sound of gunfire.

* * *

Tom sat in a chair as he looked over older pilot footage. After a while, he looked at the corner of the screen.

 _AFFECT AND CAUSE, VISUAL SIM MAPPING: 65%_

He leaned back in his chair, letting out a deep breath as he pondered the extra filler rooms he needs to possibly add in. His thoughts were interrupted by a notification from his new trainee.

"Already? What could it be this time?" He wondered out loud. The video call opened up to two frantic Rifleman and VT in the background.

" _TOM!OHTOM!SHIT!WE-SARGEOURTOOKOURWHOLESQUAD!SQUADISMISSINGANDTHEYWERE'NTATTHESPOTAND-_ "

"HEY HEY HEY! SLOW DOWN! ONE AT A TIME!" Tom backed up and put his hands in the air, quieting the two girls he got closer to the screen. "Now, what the hell is going on?"

On screen, Jane and Lian looked at each other before looking back, Jane spoke " _Well my Squad went looking for me before the explosion and now they're…_ "

Tom raised an eyebrow when Jane stopped mid-sentence, "What happened Jane?"

Jane thought got a moment before she gathered herself together enough to say what she wanted to. " _They were at the base when that explosion went off._ "

Tom took a deep breath, "You guys can't be serious."

VT leaned in from the background " _Yes, they are serious. I saw Red Squad while escorting Jane from the compound._ "

The two Rifleman sharply looked at the Titan " _You saw them on the way out, why didn't you say something?_ " Lian said accusingly.

The Mech sat back down, " _It was top priority to get Rifleman_ _Słuchacz_ _a safe distance away from the compound,_ " he explained.

Lian was about to retort to the Titan when Jane took charge of the situation, " _Tom I know you wanted me to accept that Captain Arc is gone but we need to find some way to rescue my Squad?_ " she pleaded.

Tom crossed his arms. "I don't know..." he shrugged "You only have one Glove, while I could get more of these devices they might be dead before we can rescue them." The two rifleman looked at the screen doubtful. "Look I'll let you know if I think of something just give me time," Tom ended the call and looked back at the other screen.

 _SIM MAPPING 75%_

The programmer sat down to watch the video being mapped. He watched as a Pilot fought for his life in the courtyard against weathered robots and jumping back in time to an earlier version of the compound with a pristine courtyard with living people. The man leaned in to watch closer "Now let's see how you are going to get out of this predicament…"

The programmer saw the Pilot jump back in time, to the unkempt area, and hop into his Titan. The next action caught the watcher by surprise, when he saw the Pilot time jumped back in time with his Titan. Seeing the Pilots action gave Tom an idea for a plan as he watched the Pilot fight his way past two pristine Legion Titans. Toms' plan was further solidified as he saw the Pilot grab an Ion core off a wall and use it to destroy the weathered robots that were attacking him at that present time.

The unkempt man sat up from his chair and ran out of his cave, nearly running into a man wearing a brown shirt, cargo pants and a white captain's hat _._

"Holy cow Tom! Is that you? This is the first time I've seen you out of that cave," the Captains comment caught Toms attention.

"Oh yes! Roosevelt, just the man I wanted to see!" Tom said as he stood in front of the Captain. "I need a Widow, a couple of Specters, and as many batteries you can give me."

* * *

The Pilot-in-Training sat, leaning on a tree, as tired eyes with bags watched the rising morning sun. The Vanguard Titan sitting on the other side of the tree, facing the other way, looked around the tree at his new exhausted partner.

" _You seem to be tired and unable to sleep"_ VT stated as he made an observation. _"May I suggest listening to calm music? I have a whole album left by Captain Arc._ "

Jane sighed as she leaned farther back "I don't think music will help. I just got a lot on my mind right now."

VT paused before loudly moving to sit next to Jane. " _Captain_ _Arc once told me that the best way to get over ones' problems is to talk about them._ "

The rifleman leaned forward. "Well to be honest I don't know... I should have told Captain Arc about my time with this one person who inadvertently helped us get into this situation."

VT listened to and examined what she said. " _There have been reports from other Rifleman who have seen other people that are not a part of the mission due to time distortions._ "

"Yea, I have talked to some of my Squad that's experienced it too but the weird thing was..." Janes' face scrunched up in thought. "Was that it wasn't just _frequent_... it's that it all seemed to be focused around this _one_ person."

" _How frequently have these occurred?_ " VT inquired.

"Well it was at least twice a day since we got here," she elaborated. "It would last fucking uhhhh, I don't know... just long enough to hang out... don't know why or how, kind of felt like I was dragged in there or like I was summoned or something like that."

" _Why didn't you tell Captain Arc?_ " The robot bluntly asked.

"I don't know…" Jane let out a sigh and took off her helmet to quickly run a hand through her hair. "To be completely honest, I thought I was hallucinating the whole time." She looked back at the compound "I didn't trust myself and I didn't want people thinking I was crazy but out of all of that, I think I made a good friend as well." A small smile spread onto her face.

The Titan decided to investigate further. " _Who did you acquaint yourself with? Do you think you created a paradox?_ "

Jane chuckled as she put her helmet back on. "Of course not! But well umm her name is Blumey Rote," she bent over and cophed in her hand "...kind of the new Commander of the IMC..." she muttered out softly.

" _Jane I did not get the last part,_ " VT stated as he wanted to correctly hear what she had said.

The arrival of a dropship, with doors large enough to accommodate a Titan, interrupted the conversation which landed in front of where they were sitting. The doors opened to reveal a man with brown unkempt hair, wearing glasses, and a large stache of freshly charged batteries glowing green behind him.

He approached the surprised duo with confidence. "LADIES AND GENTLE TITAN, I HAVE A PLAN!" He quickly approached the Pilot-in-Training quickly helping her to her feet. "C'mon I got a plan. Where's your friend?"

"She's sleeping somewhere around here, why?" Jane asked. "Did you find a way to save everyone?"

"Yea, I'll explain it on the ship but do you still have that Glove on you?" The Rifleman stared at Tom blankley. "Uh Jane, the Glove... do you have it?"

She blinked as she came back to reality. "Oh, uh... Sorry spaced out for a sec... yes, I have the Glove."

Tom put his hand out "Great! Hand it over it's the key to getting everyone out."

Jane handed over the device he turned around and started walking back to the dropship. "Wait! You didn't tell me why you need the Glove?"

"Just get on the ship and I will tell you!" Tom called out behind him.

Jane sighed as she turned around to get her squadmate.

* * *

Panic swept through Red Squad as swarms of flesh creatures swarmed around the hastily fortified position with the hastily set up turrets on the truck along with the haste fire of the Squad kept the tide of stumbling flesh at bay. Simon sat in one of the truck beds, firing at the mounds of distorted creatures at bay with Lester right next to him.

"Dammit they just won't stop! Where's our Pilot support?" Simon commented as he pumped out heavy rounds into the wave of creatures.

"Don't worry about it, we'll make it out just like all the other times," replied one of his squadmates.

Simon's gun clicked empty, eyes widened in panic. "SHIT!" The Grunt hastily went for another magazine to reload his weapon. The pause of fire was all that one of the creatures needed as it was able to get close to their position. The creature grabbed Lester and pulled him away, gun firing off as he disappeared in the river of distorted flesh.

"Lester!" Simon quickly reloaded his Spitfire finishing right before another creature took a swing at the now lone Grunt, only to be met with a ball of blue energy. Putting it down for good.

"Keep firing or else they will overwhelm our position!" Sarge yelled using his Anti-Titan weapon to support his subordinates. He quickly went over and picked up Simon, handing him his rifle. "If we go down, were taking as many of these fuckers with us!"

"Sir, they got Lester!" Looking back to the tide in front of him and firing his Spitfire without having to aim.

"We'll look for him later. Just worry about holding out until the Pilot gets back," the Sarge helped the Grunt back into his spot.

"That Fucker left us to die here!" One Grunt called out, only to fall on deaf ears before a yellow-white blur landed in the middle of the yard, in front of the poorly made defensive line. Before anyone or anything could identify who or what it was it, it bounded towards the beasts. The Grunts were only able to make out movements as beast after beast were cleaved in half by the unknown force.

* * *

The trio now sat in the small area of the dropship with a small group of Specters and a very large crate of Titan batteries, which seemed to all be hastily connected to a very large cord running into the ship that hovered over the courtyard.

Tom put the jet on autopilot before he turned around to go back and meet with the other three that were on the ship. Jane readied the Devotion in her arms, checking the ammo on it; Tom pointed at her weapon "If you're going to ask if I really need this ammo and heavy weapons, the answer is yes... Yes, your do." He explained.

Jane craned her head "Why? I thought it was just a simple grab and go kind of mission."

"Well you know how I said your mentor is most likely dead?" Tom asked in a slightly high pitched tone.

"Uh yea. Why?" Jane asked as she set the LMG into a low-ready position.

"Weeeeelllllll... There's a bio-weapon that the IMC cooked up that is trapped there with him and the rest of your Squad... And it ain't pretty. Trust me." Tom pulled up a picture of one of the creatures on his mobile data pad, which he passed to the two Grunts. The color then proceeded to drain from both of their faces. "Which is why I gave you that Devotion. Just don't touch anything bio or gooey and if it isn't a person shoot it. Maybe burn it with a few of these firestars also," he quickly added on as an afterthought before he passed a few of the shuriken firestars to the duo.

The color failed to return to the face of the two Grunts as they continued to stare at the creature before them. Jane shakely handed back data pad back to Tom, the two friends both holding their weapons just a little bit tighter.

"You sure this is real?" Lian asked the man before the two of them. "I know the IMC does crazy shit but that looks impossible. Where... Where did you evengetthis picture from?"

"From the video footage transmitted from Captain Arcs helm," Tom replied almost nonchalantly. Neither of the two noticed that his voice got a bit softer and an octave higher when he said that.

"Wait," Jane said as she felt a bit of anger start to seep into her voice. "There's video footage of Captain Arc that was _transmitted to you_! And you're only _now_ telling me that he's _alive_?!"

"Hey hey hold your horses! Tom replied as he raised his arms up and took a step back. "This footage was from earlier, when he accidentally entered the dimension before the big explosion due to the glove malfunctioning for reasons I'm not going to say"

"Fine, just not going to ask, but, well how are we going to rescue them with only one Glove?" Lian cut in before they went even further off track. "I mean, we don't even know how many of those... _things,_ there are. And a small part of me doubts that only two Riflemen a titan and a techie would be able to save them."

Tom let out a chuckle. "From what I've seen, that if we are in a vehicle," he vividly motined to the ship that they were in. "And the device has sufficient power, it can create an area of effect that takes anyone, or anything, inside the vehicle along with the wielder."

"Wait what?!" Lian almost shouted in a panicked state.

Tom towards the war machine with a cocky smile on his face. "Please just, trust me that this will work. VT back me up here."

The Titan looked over to the panicking woman before he simply stated, " _I calculate a 45 percent chance that this will work._ "

Lian was not comforted by the information, hyperventilating as she looked at the vanguard titan.

Tom just face palmed at the titans remark.

Jane looked over to the hulking mass of metal. "Not Helping VT," she hissed out before looking back to her worried friend. "Look Li, this may be our only chance to save our Squad. We need to trust each other... as stupid as that may be."

Lian looked at her squadmate and the Pilotless Titan, then she looked out of the dropship to the empty court yard to reaffirm why she was there. She readied her belt fed Devotion and looked back with a face that said, "Fuck it! I'm not going to stay behind again while you guys go on a suicide mission. Someone has to make sure your ass's get back her after all."

" _I shall ensure that your entire body returns along with_ _your ass's or gluteus maximus,"_ VT chipped in.

Jane could feel a smile appear on her face as she let out a small laugh at VT's lack of understanding. "That's the spirit you two. We all set Tom?"

Tom made his way to the cockpit where he fit the Glove on his hand, and the two Grunts and Titan strapped themselves down, making sure he wasn't electrocuted by the large power cord he had hooked up to the Glove. He went over the systems, flipping switches and putting both hands on the controls of the ship. "Alright you guys Jumping in 3... 2... 1..."

Jane felt her position in reality being pulled in a flash before being dropped into a blue scaled world. Everyone in the ship relaxed a little bit as they took a deep breath. Tom started to laugh in the cockpit that could be heard through the entire ship. "HAHAAAAA! I DID IT! WE ACTUALLY MADE IT! WE'RE NOT DEAD!"

Janes' grip tightened onto the hook she was holding onto. "Now that the hard part is over, we can now go looking for everyone else. Right Lian?" she looked over to her squadmate "Li?"

Lian was bent over holding her stomach. "I think I'm going to be sick.." she went out opened the door and let out her breakfast. looking outside the ship, she noticed the state of the court yard. "Uh Jane. I think you want to see this."

Jane and VT looked out of the dropship. The sight sent red flags through her mind. The courtyard was littered with corpses of creatures that they can only describe as ungodly amalgamations of pale flesh, with some having large jaws, and others having large appendages of unknown purpose. Most had a dog-like snout, with varying degrees of fangs and molars mixed and mashed throughout their jawline, while others a much flatter face where it was hard to hell where the neck began on them. The feature that they all had in common though was that they had large, black, dead eyes that were reminiscent of sharks.

The chaos seemed to in the near center of the yard where the remains of three trucks parked in a circle showing evidence of a fierce firefight. The Grunts didn't need to look twice at the leftover chunks and ribbons of flesh. They only hoped that whoever it was from their Squad that were eaten, didn't have to suffer for long.

"Whelp I think it's clear that everyone that we came here for is dead. So I think we should leave before we draw the attention of whatever killed them," Lian said morbidly.

Jane scowled at Lian for the comment she had just made."No. We're not leaving until we make sure that either they're all dead or if we can still save them. Right VT?"

" _Jane is the highest ranking official in this situation. Due to the situation, insubordination can be met with sudden termination of the insubordinate,_ " VT stated in its monotone voice.

Lian looked at the Titan in disbelief before looking back at her friend. "You're not fucking serious! We're all going to die here if we stay here that long," Lian took a step forward and stared her friend dead in the eye before her voice became low and serious. "And I don't want be dinner for whatever took out those trucks."

The Pilot-in-Training, surprised with her newfound support, looked semi-confidently at Lian. "We don't leave until we make sure we know what happened to our friends. If you're so convinced that they are dead you can stay here with the ship then."

"You know what? I think I will!" Lian grunted out as she went over to the other side of the vessel looking away from her Squadmate.

Jane looked at her friend thinking of something to say before giving up and looking up at her robotic, and possibly temporary, partner. "You ready VT?"

The Titan picked up the Thermite launcher and checked the last set of systems that were in use before VT became separated from Jaune. Most Pilots just tended to call this combination of gas and thermite after the Titan chassis that primarily used it: Scorch... officially though, it had no name. " _Yes. I am combat ready to assist in the search but are you sure you want to proceed without Rifleman_ _Tsunagatta_ _? Without her we are down 30 percent in Combat Effectiveness._ "

The Pilot-in-Training turned towards the open doors and took a deep breath. "Yes VT, we have to. For Red Squad." She looked back at the cockpit and raised her voice so she could be heard. "OK Tom, set us down."

As the dropship descended, she readied the Devotion in her hands. Jane constantly made sure it was ready as they made their way to their current destination. She was damn sure that it wouldn't fail her... but she couldn't help the pre-battle shakes that always came right before a mission.

 _Just remember your training Jane. You can do this._ She closed her eyes for a second and breathed in a deep and slow breath that she held in her lungs for a second. _Captain Arc would say 'The best days are the ones where we_ ALL _come back home'... And I'll be damned if I lose anymore friends to these things._ She slowly exhaled and her eyes snapped open with a fierce determination. _Sarge would say 'Make sure they all feel the wrath, of red justice!"_ keeping these motivation quotes in mind she hoped that she was ready for what's out there.

Jumping from the ship, she was followed by the Titan along with a multitude of Spectres armed with Volts. Taking deep breaths she walked over to the remains that laid in the middle of the courtyard and was shortly followed by VT. Upon reaching the spot, the details became clearer as she could see the depth of the claw marks in the trucks, and irreparably damaged turrets. She turned to the mech,"VT, can you know uh," She gestured to the area around them to help her think. "Scan the area and see if there are any clues that can help us to everyone's whereabouts?" Jane backed away from the spot to make room for the Titan, even though it was an open area and didn't really need to.

It was just more of a habit.

" _Affirmative,"_ VT acknowledged. Scanning the area, he an abundance of details and information ran through his processor before he turned to Jane. " _There is a lot of evidence that a large battle has taken place here but I did not identify any blood related to Red Squad or Captain Arc._ " Jane let out a sigh of relief VT turned to the Grunt.

"Might as well try to reach them over com see if they can tell us where they are," she raised her hand to the earpiece that was connected to her radio. "Hey uh, hello… guys? It's me Jane, is anyone still out there?" Keeping a hand on her ear she paced a little ways back and forth. "Sarge? Boris? Anyone? It's Jane. I'm here with Tom and VT to get you guys out of here?" The silence of the area and the radio in her ear were her only answers.

Waiting around a little longer she looked over at the Titan, "You getting anything on your end VT?"

" _No. I suggest we hold position and send mechanized scouts as a precaution,_ " he suggested.

"Well I don't like the idea but I trust your judgement," but before she could make her way back to the ship, garbled static came through her earpiece. Listening to the radio she could only make out a hand full of words as she recognized the voice on the other end. "VT, I'm getting something! Point me in the direction to where the signal is coming from!"

VT paused before pointing to a certain point in the compound. " _The signal seems to be coming from over in that area but I must advise to send mecha-_ "

"No time for the drones they need me now!" Jane started running in hand towards the area VT had pointed.

" _Riflemen Jane what are you doing?_ " He asked over the coms. " _Without proper information on these creatures, it is highly advised that you take Spectres with you to improve your Combat Rating,_ " his words only fell on deaf ears as she quickly entered the doors leaving the group behind.

A door opened on the opposite end of where Jane had just entered. Reacting on program, the Titan spun around with his Thermite Launcher ready to fire.

"Woah woah woah! It's just us!" A SRS pilot called out.

* * *

A yellowish white blur landed in the middle of the yard in front of the poorly made defensive line. Before anyone or anything could identify who or what it was, it found. The Grunts were only able to make out its movements as beast after beast was cleaved in half by the unknown force.

Flashes of silver accompanied the Blur as it seemed to dance around the beasts and dogged gunfire. Splatters of neon orange blood sprayed out from the creatures whenever the silver flashed and made a painting across the ground. Pools of the orange and red blood from the dismemberment, beheadings, and bisections of the creatures were the only thing that disrupted the painting. Screeches and death cries sounded throughout the area and the Blur continued its dance of death before it silenced them all.

"What the hell? Please let it be friendly," Boris pleaded with himself, and any higher being. The Blur quickly bounced to the fortifications and landed on top of the truck with a heavy thud. Red Squad instinctively aimed their weapons out of surprise and training before realizing who it was.

"Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me…" Giles said to no one in particular.

Juane now stood on top of the truck with a sword in hand and shield in the other. "I FOUND A PLACE WHERE WE CAN HOLD OUT! FOLLOW ME!" He called out, waving his sword in the process, before racing off towards the building in a blink of an eye.

Red Squad stood there, eyes wide with what they just witnessed.

Sarge composed himself and turned to his subordinates, "You heard the cartoon character. Let's move!".

* * *

 _ **SCANNING...**_

 _ **SCANNING COMPLETE**_

 _ **FACIAL RECOGNITION ACCURACY: 99.98%**_

 _ **IFF CONFIRMED FRIENDLY**_

 _ **SRS PILOT CONFIRMED**_

 _ **IFF_SRSJA14120106 CONFIRMED**_

 _ **STATUS CHANGE REQUESTED: KIA**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **STATUS UPDATE COMPLETE**_

 _ **CURRENT STATUS: ACTIVE**_

 _ **FOLLOWING PROTOCOL**_

VTs' eye piece adjusted as the Titan scanned the group that appeared out of the complex. Confirming on the tenth complete scan that it had done within a second. Upon completing the tenth scan the war machine lowered the large launcher in its hands. " _Identity confirmed. Objective complete._ "

" _Wha- did Jane find them already VT?_ " Tom questioned with a bit of disbelief at how fast it took.

" _Correct, I have rondevu with Captain Arc and the remnants of Red Squad._ "

" _Oh how convenient, I'm setting the bird down now. VT can you send a spectre to let let Jane know we found 'em?_ " The aircraft slowly started its descent, sofley coming to rest on the ground as Red Squad and Jaune watched it.

Juane scanned the courtyard once more now that he had a chance to really look around him. "Wait, she actually went with you guys?" The pilot held the volt like weapon in his hands a little tighter. He was protective of the girl. After all, having seven sisters, being a leader of a team, and now a mentor to a promising investment tended to make one protective.

" _She is over on the other side of the complex,_ " the Titan stated as he turned and pointed across the courtyard to where Jane had rushed in.

"OH FUCK!" A grunt called out. "Isn't that close where the Pilot said where those fuckers are coming from?!"

"CRAP! Dillan your right!" Another grunt called out.

"Can it you two!" Sarge shouted. "It's bad enough already without you two reminding us where the fleshy, deformed demons came out of."

"Hey somethings coming out," Boris called out as he readied his weapon. All weapons were drawn and pointed to the entrance, ready to fire at whatever was about to come out.

" _Pilot, friendly IFFs have been confirmed. They have been identified as Rifleman_ _Słuchacz_ _and Rifleman Peterson,_ " the Titan discreetly communicated to the Pilot right as the doorway suddenly opened and two people came out, one helping the injured other.

"Hold it!" Juane ordered right before the first shot was fired. "It's Jane and Peterson." Everyone lowered their weapons, staying behind the Pilot as they watched their supposed missing squadmate was dragging another supposedly missing squadmate. The Sergeant turned around staring daggers into the small crowd.

"What you all doing standing around? Go help them" The Sergeant berated them. The Squad quickly scurried off to help the two squadmates onto the ship. With the help from the remaining members Jane quickly got Lester to the ship and gave her thanks to them.

Entering the ship the Squad set the unconscious, slime covered squadmate on the ship floor. Lian, realizing who just showed up, walked over the group surrounded by the Squad seeing the downed squadmate

"You guys are alive! Is Lester alright?" Lian quipped catching the attention of everyone.

"Yea.. maybe... I don't know... It's not like you care anyways…" Jane pessimistically ridiculed, returning her attention to the unconscious Grunt along with the rest of the Squad. Lian opened her mouth to retort but couldn't think of anything off the top of her head, instead she opted to go sit on the near the back of the craft.

The final three who entered the craft were the Squad leader and the Pilot, along with the Titan scanning the area around the ship before stepping onto the ship. Turning his attention onto the people situated in the ship, he took a closer look at the man that was fished out by the Pilot-in-Training.

"Alright! Headcount you lucky asshats," Sarge called out over the many who stood before him, as he counted everyone before him. When he was done counting, Sarge turned his attention to the SRS Pilot, "And Peterson has been accounted for as well, which makes everyone present and accounted for Pilot."

"Good to hear. I'm going to head to the cockpit to check in with Tom. Keep an eye out in case anything happens." He said before he started to turn to his Titan. "And VT, send the Spectres off the ship to cover our blind spots." The pilot got the nod from everybody, who all went to an open spot to keep watch as he headed up to the cockpit. He was finally able to relax once he saw the usual unkempt supply manager.

"So I guess this whole rescue mission was your idea," the Pilot stated as he leaned over the seat.

Tom let out a chuckle as he went for a spot in front of Jaune. "Well if you die then that means I have a crap ton more paperwork to do." Both men just laughed as the ships pilot turned to greet the titan pilot. They both shared a sympathetic look with the other, before Tom turned back around to the controls "This means you're gonna owe me a fat solid for this one" he reached around the cockpit and started to flip certain switches, with the sounds of engines signifying the status of the ship. "Alright ships all set to go. Anything else you need before we make our leave?"

Juane reared his head to the back area of the ship seeing Jane along with her Squad and the fellow on the floor along with VT. He was about the give the thumbs up when he was personally notified by VT privately over a private com channel.

 _Anomaly detected in Rifleman Petersons' abdomen_

The information caused the Pilot to freeze. "Give me a second Tom, I gotta check something real quick."

The shaggy haired man sighed as he continued his pre-flight checks. "Fine, just let me know over the radio... Don't want your Aura messing with the glove again."

The Pilot cringed at the thought as he quickly approached the now lone, unconscious man on the floor. Leaning over, he saw the scans going over the body in his helmet as it thoroughly highlighted the Grunts' body before it finally highlighted an object in red. _Oum dammit it can't just be simple_ , Jaune thought pragmatically; thinking the worst as he reached to his side for his wingman and unholstered it. He held it to his side as he considered weather to handle the anomaly now or deal with it later.

" _Movement detected from southwest entrance,_ " VT announce to everyone, as he highlighted the doorway Jane had walked out of earlier. A multitude of long, fleshy appendages protruded out of the doorway with a violent rage as they came out. The mechanized scouts responded in kind by shooting it while everyone in the ship stared in disbelief. The Pilot quickly coming back to his senses.

"VT deploy all loaded thermite gas grenades," he ordered as holstered his pistol before he called out to Tom over the radio. "Get us the hell out of here! I don't care where, just somewhere NOT here!" The Pilot quickly threw out a Firestar once he saw that VT had finished the task, catching the Grunts attentions as it passed by their heads. The Firestar hit the gas covered ground before it ignited the thermite gas as it made contact, which elicited a violent, inhuman screeching from the abominations that touched it.

Refocused, the Grunts on the ship started firing at whatever was closest in a panicked, unfocused spray of bullets with the titan providing accurate covering fire as the ship started to ascend into the sky. Ultimately using the Ion Core 'Face Laser,' as it was dubbed by everyone, to slow down what was pouring out. As the ship finally got to the proper altitude, space started to stretch around them before they felt the familiar pull of Jumping through reality itself.

Once the pulling ceased and they went back into 'normal space,' all on board, minus VT, let out a sigh of relief at the nightmare they had just escaped. Though they all wondered if they had truly escaped the horror of that IMC facility because they hoped that whatever experiment it was, stayed buried.

* * *

 **Like to really thank Spartastic4 for his help with this chapter. He helped me with a lot of this chapter.**

 **Any criticism or suggestions are greatly appreciated.**

 **Seeya next chapter.**


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